I believe and have argued for years that Shinya Yamanaka, the discoverer of induced pluripotent stem cells (aka iPS cells) deserves the Nobel Prize. I’m very glad today that he received it. Some readers may find it a bit ironic that I believe so strongly in this way since over the years I have often …
Why Yamanaka deserved the Nobel Prize for induced pluripotent stem cells Read More »
Top stem cell meetings and conferences. If you want me to post your meeting, email me or post a comment (I’ll delete the comment and add the meeting to the main page). Meetings from 2012 can be found here. My listing of these meetings is not an endorsement of them, but is provided for informational …
Yesterday I managed to get to see a fabulous talk by Dr. Edison Liu, President and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory in Maine. I was able to squeeze it in, in between working on my R01 proposal and preparing for teaching histo to the med students here at UC Davis Med School. Dr. Liu was …
This morning the Internet here at UC Davis Medical Center was on and off down for a couple hours. You’d think we had suffered a complete electronic catastrophe of the kind on the new sci-fi show on NBC, Revolution by JJ Abrams, where nothing electronic works even if it is battery powered. Here it was …
The iPS cell field has had a relatively quiet 2012 so far, but one recent paper has drawn particular attention in the last 10 days. I’m talking about the paper from Jaenisch’s lab on iPS cells in Cell. Quite a few people are excited, but also scratching their heads a bit as to what this …
Jaenisch’s new, complicated iPS paper in Cell: what the heck does it all mean? Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock symbol ACTC) announced that it has secured $35 million in funding from investment company, Lincoln Park Capital. The press release quotes CEO Gary Rabin: “We are most pleased about this financing agreement, as it has a number of notable benefits for the company,” commented Gary Rabin, chairman and CEO of …
Stem Cell Biotech Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) gets $35 million Read More »
Last year, for the second year in a row, I handed out awards to the top players in the stem cell universe. There were the Knoepfler Lab 2011 Stem Cell Awards. If you read that post you can see the full spectrum of the awardees, which included Matt Bohrs for stem cell political cartoon of the …
Knoepfler Blog Stem Cell Awards 2012: Real prizes, nominate your favorites! Read More »
Obtaining research grant funding is a critical part of science, but the process seems to be getting more challenging each year. Funding rates are decreasing. Applicant frustration is increasing and many grant applicants tell me they feel confused about the differences between funded and unfunded proposals. The largest funder of biomedical research in the U.S. …
Interview with NIGMS Director, Jeremy Berg, part 1: grant advice, meritocracy Read More »
Next month there is going to be a new stem cell meeting taking place. The 1st Annual Houston Stem Cell Summit. The primary sponsor is Celltex. I’d encourage everyone to go, but I’m not so sure it’d be worth it. Why? I’m always glad to see another stem cell meeting and this one is surely unique in …
Houston stem cell meeting lacks diversity & risks falling to groupthink Read More »
Stem cell cosmetics is an exploding area ranging from facial creams (e.g. from L’Oreal and its Lancome) to face lifts to boob jobs to baldness treatments (see two key posts here and here for background and great stories). The stem cell cosmetics field has not been held back by issues such as the fact that …
L’Oreal Lancome gets hammered by FDA, why kid gloves for clinics? Read More »