stem cells

My post yesterday on the problems with the current system of stem cell funding generated a lot of interest from readers– more than a dozen left comments. Many of the comments were insightful even if readers disagreed on certain points. David Jensen also posted on an interesting piece on this issue in response to our […]

Reportedly,  House Republicans are proposing a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the rest of FY2011 at 2008 funding levels.  To achieve such an end, the Republicans would have to invoke serious cuts through the federal budget. Not only would such cuts likely damage the U.S. economy, but also they would have major other negative consequences.

Today is New Year’s Day for the Chinese New Year.  Happy New Year! On the Chinese Calendar it is year 4708 instead of 2011. I hope year 4708 is a good one for you and your family. Today being Chinese New Year has got me thinking about how the Chinese view stem cell research. My

Last Fall’s mid-term election brought into office several new Republican Governors who during their campaigns used strong, anti-embryonic stem (ES) cell research rhetoric. For example, then candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker (now the Governor) used some of the strongest language, which was ironic considering that human ES cells were first produced in Wisconsin

A new paper is out from a team at The Salk lead by Joseph Ecker that the methylomes of many different human iPS cells.  Their conclusion is that while iPS cells and ES cells are generally very similar in terms of the global portions of the genomes that are methylated, iPS cells exhibited hundreds of

A report will be issued today of the economic impact of CIRM on California. The Sac Bee and FierceBiotech are reporting on the economic infusion that CIRM has provided to the state. On average during its existence, CIRM has created 8 jobs day for the state of California. The jobs mostly consist not surprisingly of

Last night President Obama gave a state of the union speech. He seemed appropriately somber given the many issues facing the country. One issue of particular importance is the federal budget and the deficit. Will Obama strongly get behind biomedical research and request budget increases for 2011 for NIH and NSF? If not, then the

Can one creature directly give another creature cancer? It appears so in dogs and that cancer is highly contagious. When we think about transplants of cells, we think about hospitals and high-tech equipment used to give patients stem cells or other types of cells to help treat them for a disease. Generally cancer patients are

A federal appeals court today threw out a lawsuit against federal funding of ES cell research. The lawsuit reportedly was filed on behalf of all cryopreserved embryos in the U.S. and the ruling was issued by the US Court of the Appeals of the 4th Circuit. While this decision does not directly have anything to

CIRM announced today that it had appointed Ellen Feigal, M.D., to be its first VP for Research Development. Dr. Feigal will begin the job on Jan. 31. Dr. Feigal is a graduate of UC Davis Med School (where I am writing this from; go UC Davis SOM!) and is currently Executive Medical Director for Global