Geron abruptly announced today that it will no longer pursue its spinal cord injury trial using oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) derived from hESC. Several sources indicate that Geron is hoping to find a buyer of its drug for this trial, GRNOPC1 and the hope is that the trial could be rescued in a sense. Why […]
Rumors flying on Geron, ACT, CIRM and the stem cell field Read More »
Today the Vatican held the first day of its adult stem cell conference. Embryonic stem cells remained not surprisingly uninvited. This conference is an unprecedented event in the thousands of years of history of The Church so not surprisingly many people are very interested in the event and trying to understand what it means. Interestingly,
What are the goals of the Vatican stem cell meeting and why no press releases so far? 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 »
In mid-November the Catholic Church, in fact the Vatican itself, will do something it has never done before in its very long existence. It will hold a conference on stem cells. Perhaps equally unusual and of interest is the fact that the basis for this conference is a $1 million (USD) gamble by the Vatican
More on the Vatican $1 million gamble on NeoStem and their upcoming conference in Rome Read More »
Why does it worry me that the Vatican is having a stem cell conference? One of the hallmarks of Democracy is separation of church and state. When states mix religion into politics and government, the results have during human history been disastrous. Equally dismal has been the relationship between religion and science. Ever since the
The Vatican Stem Cell Meeting…is mixing religion and science a good idea? Read More »
Today was the first day of the World Stem Cell Summit here in Pasadena. There is an excitement and energy here that is inspiring and unique, not something one typically finds at a traditional all-science, tunnel vision kind of conference. Here, thinking outside the box in terms of finding ways to advance stem cell research
Inspiring first day of World Stem Cell Summit: my thoughts Read More »
I’m here in lovely Pasadena California for the World Stem Cell Summit which starts early tomorrow morning. I’ll be blogging the conference giving you my impressions. I arrived here just in time to take a long walk down to Caltech, where my dad was an undergraduate. I’d never been there before and I have to
Blogging the World Stem Cell Summit 2011 Read More »
Dr. Ted Peters, Lutheran pastor and Christian Scholar, has a new book out: Sacred Cells? Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research. Dr. Peters argues in his book and also at a recent Christian Scholars Conference at Pepperdine University that Christians should respect all sides of this argument and don’t just “have malice towards those
Pastor: Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research Read More »
The Niche has had many authors over the years, focusing on expertise in the biomedical arena and in particular related to stem cells. I’ve invited many authorities in particular areas to write posts. Over the years I’ve written probably 99+% of the posts here on The Niche, but we’ve also had some great guest authors
Authors on The Niche Read More »
Asilomar is known in the field of biomedical sciences as a great place to go for small meetings. I was there recently for the First Annual Bay Area Stem Cell Conference, which I helped to organize. It was an exciting meeting and all the presenters (except keynoters) were trainees. The amount of great stem cell
Asilomar: great science plus shells, flowers on the beach Read More »