What’s the Witherspoon Institute? Most of you know about the 2 scientists who for their own reasons want to kill embryonic stem cell (ESC) research and with it the hopes for millions of people. Relatively new on most of our radar screens, however, is an extremist right-wing “think tank” called The Witherspoon Institute, which I […]
Secrets of the Witherspoon Gang Read More »
A year from now will I still be conducted federally funded research on human ES cells? What about the hundreds of other professors in the U.S. and their thousands of employees? It is not unreasonable at this point to forecast a perfect storm in Fall 2012 that may kill elements of stem cell research that
The perfect storm in Fall 2012 that may kill ES cells research Read More »
Today, an authoritative article was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that included some of the most comprehensive polling of attitudes in the U.S. and around the world on embryonic stem cell (ESC) or ES cell research. Their findings indicate very widespread and deep support for ESC research around the globe including in
New England Journal of Med: most Americans support ES cell research Read More »
Yesterday Geron announced it would be immediately stopping its stem cell research program. What does this mean? While this program has (or should I say “had”) a number of elements, at its heart was of course its hESC-based OPC drug (GRNOPC1) for spinal cord injury, which was in an FDA-approved Phase I Clinical Trial that
The day after Geron news: a realistic outlook for the stem cell field Read More »
What with the Mississippi “personhood” amendment up for a vote today and also the Vatican Adult Stem Cell Conference beginning tomorrow, I thought today was a good time for a post about adult versus embryonic stem cells. Does stem cell research have to be either/or? Adult or stem? Can’t someone be for both adult and
Key points about adult versus embryonic stem cells Read More »
Tomorrow night voters in Mississippi will vote on the so-called “Personhood Amendment”. If passed, the amendment would make a fertilized egg by definition a human being with the same rights as a living, breathing, thinking, walking person in the state of Mississippi. The consequences are not clear, but possibilities include such things as complete bans on
Why Horton was wrong: a person is not a person no matter how small, even in Mississippi Read More »
In response to our post on the recent New Scientist article, which we felt had an anti-ES cell bent, Roger Highfield has responded. He wrote: New Scientist has always backed well-conducted research on ES cells and I have voiced my own support many times, notably in After Dolly (written with Ian Wilmut). And I am
Comment from Roger Highfield, editor of The New Scientist Read More »
As many of you know, I did a post this week on an article in The New Scientist that many readers had complained to me about. Their concerns and mine as well centered on two points. First, the article seemed at a factual level to be confusing and written in a People Magazine-esque style that
More on The New Scientist and stem cells Read More »
What the heck happened to The New Scientist? An anti-embryonic stem cell piece they just recently published was an exercise in weird, moral obfuscation. Quite a few scientists and policy makers are fairly regular readers of The New Scientist. They might start reconsidering how they want to spend that $99/year. Why not use it to
The New Scientist goes after ES cells with strange opinion piece Read More »
I’ve posted before about the propaganda machine that is actively promoting an anti-embryonic stem cell agenda. This machine is still out there and as many of us discussed at the recent World Stem Cell Summit, it seems to be working far better than our efforts to promote our cause. What do the folks on the
Strategies of Anti-Stem Cell Propaganda War Machine Read More »