brain

Weekly reads: our new brain tumor paper, levitation, dear doctor, Japan, more

brain tumor, H3.3 K27M, ASCL1

There’s nothing quite like getting a new paper out as a scientist running a research lab so this week we can celebrate our new pediatric brain tumor study. I’ll start the weekly reads with that paper. Of course, getting new grants is amazing too but there’s more of a feel of completion after a paper […]

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Nature paper claims young CSF fights brain aging in mice

old mice get young CSF

A new Nature paper argues that young CSF fights brain aging. Young CSF vs. young blood CSF is the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain, including those of young mice. The claim is that when young CSF is injected into the brain/CNS cavity of old mice, it makes the aged brains seem younger. And function

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A look at “eyes on the brain organoids” Cell Stem Cell paper

brain organoids eyes

Sometimes a paper really catches your eye like a new Cell Stem Cell pub reporting eye-like structures grown on brain organoids. The paper is Human brain organoids assemble functionally integrated bilateral optic vesicles. Let’s take a quick look at this paper, its context, and the potential big-picture implications. Brain organoids with “eyes”? At first glance,

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Jellyfish on the brain: a critical look at Prevagen

crystal jellyfish aequorea victoria, Prevagen

I’ve been asked many times over the years if stem cell injections at for-profit clinics can help brain function, but recently the more common query is whether brain supplements such as Prevagen actually work. I’m skeptical of both unproven stem cell injections and supplements that are supposed to somehow help the brain, but some of

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Weekly reads: Alzheimer’s, dinosaur brains, teratoma, vampire amoeba, new H3K27me3 reader

vampire-amoeba-sm

Anyone with a seemingly only semi-functional nervous system now post-election might be turning to science to help their brains bounce back. Here are some of the things I’ve been reading or hope to soon. In good news for the stem cell and regenerative medicine field, especially here in California, it looks like us California voters

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Weekly reads: lab meat, crow brain biology, direct reprogramming, more

Stacho-et-al-Science-2020-Fig-1small

Does time seem somewhat warped to anyone else in 2020 even without having  had COVID, which could alter brain function? It just seems like with everything going on that time simultaneously both drags and zooms by this year. One sort of reassuring element is that papers keep on being published so we can enjoy cool

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Reciprocal CRISPR gene editing in pediatric glioma: defining mechanisms & testing drugs

reciprocal-CRISPR-mutant-H3.3

My lab’s new paper in Communications Biology focused on high-grade pediatric glioma that have mutant histone variant H3.3 and we did something fairly novel that we are calling reciprocal CRISPR. Kids with these tumors have a near zero survival rate within a few years of diagnosis so we as a field desperately need something new to give

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OCT4-SOX DNA dance, PRC2, a noisy competition & more cell weekly reads

EMBO-J-2020-Fig-3b-Salazar-Roa-et-al

What’s new in the stem cell, cell therapy, and regenerative medicine world as well as biomedical science more generally including cancer? There’s quite a bit of news as reflected in media pieces and new pubs. Today’s post is focused on pubs that just came out. For last week’s recommended reads see here. Oct4-Sox2 Nucleosome Binding

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Probing F1 legend Michael Schumacher stem cell juice story

Michael-Schumacher-stem-cells

What’s the deal with Michael Schumacher and his Hail Mary stem cell procedure. Usually when we hear about celebrities getting unproven stem cells, it’s the celebrity themselves or their PR machine hyping it in exchange for something like free treatments or even money from those offering the stem cells for sale, but in the past

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