Cellular Dynamics, the stem cell company founded by Dr. James Thomson, is filing for an IPO. Hat tip to David Jensen. The company, which will go under the stock symbol ICEL, is focused on iPS cell-produced products. They describe their portfolio as follows: Cellular Dynamics is developing and deploying a number of cell types derived from […]
Cellular Dynamics IPO: big money, iPS cell IP rights, trade secrets Read More »
I just closed my blog’s poll on what are the most clinically promising pluripotent stem cells. Why close the poll now less than 12 hours after I opened it instead of leaving the poll open longer? You’ll find out soon enough. I can’t resist teasing you readers sometimes. iPS cells were the big winners in
iPS cells top poll as most clinically promising pluripotent stem cells Read More »
I recently did a series of 4 polls on potential roadblock issues in the iPS cell field. The impetus for these polls was my sense that there were substantial differences in views on whether iPS cells were now proven to be equivalent to ES cells in 4 key ways. Turns out the polls got a
There was a time, not so long ago, when the religious right hailed the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Headlines blared from the extreme right on the Internet such as, “Embryonic stem cells obsolete”. Even the same kind of thing, saying, “The stem cell debate is dead”. You see opponents of embryonic stem
Why the extreme religious right are turning against iPS cells Read More »
If you are wondering, “How will iPS cells get to help patients?” part of the answer is perhaps the big player and Japanese Institution, Riken and its arm Retina Institute of Japan. The stem cell field is still abuzz about induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells 7 years after their discovery. This amazing embryonic stem cell-like cells can
Meet Retina Institute of Japan: translating iPS cells Read More »
Poll on this question: are iPS cells and ES cells functionally identical?
Hot topic poll: are iPS cells and ES cells functionally identical? Read More »
A team from the Salk Institute in La Jolla led by Inder Verma has reported dedifferentiation in a paper in Science some important findings that I believe make their paper in the top 10 as a candidate for paper of the year. The paper, entitled “Dedifferentiation of Neurons and Astrocytes by Oncogenes Can Induce Gliomas
Dedifferentiation of neurons & astrocytes into glioma forming cells Read More »
It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about how concerned I was that iPS cells might be used in early phase human clinical trials as early as next year and that would be high risk given safety concerns about iPS cells. Oh, it was yesterday. Now today….. Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the top newspapers
One of the questions I get asked most often is whether induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are well on their way to replacing ES (embryonic stem) cells. My answer? No. Not yet. iPS cells are great, but the original notion pushed by some that iPS cells would somehow replace ES cells, which would be
Primary challenges facing iPS cells in late 2012 Read More »
Now six years into its existence, the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell field is no longer in its infancy to put it mildly but what will it take to get IPS cells to patients? Perhaps one might say that cutting edge new scientific fields advance in dog years. In that way of thinking, the iPS
What will it take to get iPS cells to patients? Read More »