Is it really deja vu all over again with allegations of potential wrongdoing in a paper on human cloning? “Say it isn’t so!”, is basically the universal reaction I’m getting from people in the stem cell field. Well, sadly it seems to be so folks. What’s going on? Allegations have emerged on a website called […]
Human cloning Cell paper under investigation: some perspectives Read More »
One of the more exciting stem cell biotechs out there today is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). At this time ACT has the only two ES cell-based FDA-approved clinical trials ongoing and so far they have looked quite promising in terms of preliminary safety data. However, ACT has much more in the pipeline including potentially iPS
Interview with Gary Rabin of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Read More »
Many of us in the scientific community who work on cancer got the message below about the extremely dire state of funding. To the NCI-supported scientific community: As you have heard and read, the Budget Control Act (aka “sequestration”) has gone into effect as of March 1st. All components of the NIH, including the
Official message from Harold Varmus, Director of NCI, on Sequestration Read More »
Businessweek just published a very long, interesting article on Celltex by Susan Berfield yesterday. I was happy to talk with Susan at length about the key issues and be quoted in the article. See image at left of two key Celltex leaders, David Eller, CEO of Celltex, and Stan Jones above (Photograph by Thomas Prior
Nuggets and pyrite in Businessweek article on Celltex Read More »
What scares scientists? What fears keep them up at night worrying? What makes them scream (if only in their heads)? As part of my elephant in the lab series tackling difficult but important topics for scientists, today I am talking fear! Earlier posts in this series included taboo topics about iPS cells, the dirty dozen
Fears of academic scientists: elephant in the lab series Read More »
Yesterday I posted an interesting interview with ICMS President Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez. I again thank Rodriguez for participating. Please note that one issue that I had already raised to Dr. Rodriguez was that I could not find the membership of their IRB listed on their website and this was apparently just addressed as that information can
Recommendations to ICMS for improved practices Read More »
I started my series on the sins of scientists last week with a piece called “Failure to Cite”. “Failure to cite” refers to the practice whereby some scientists choose not to cite the papers of their competitors, to make their own seem more novel, or as payback to folks they consider their “enemies”. In today’s
Seven sins of scientists part 2: paper or grant killing Read More »