I’m tracking opinion in the world of stem cells on STAP cells, those acid-induced stem cells reported in Nature. I’m hoping to capture potential dynamic changes in people’s views as the STAP stem cell situation evolves. Even if you’ve voted in my past polls, this is a new one so you can (and please do) […]
Do You Believe in STAP Cells: Poll Week 3 Read More »
I’ve been doing polling on people’s views about STAP stem cells. You can see the week 1 poll results here. I’ve just closed the week 2 polling and the results are above. In week 1 while there was a significant split between respondents, the polling leaned clearly toward people being more positive about STAP stem
STAP cells week 2 poll results: more uncertainty Read More »
Sometimes you think you know a person and they suddenly surprise you by doing something so new that it is shocking or by taking on a new personality. Cells can be that way too. In my book on stem cells, Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide (you can buy it here on Amazon–it’s very affordable–or also here at
New Ways of Thinking About Stem Cells: Book Excerpt Read More »
It is important for the stem cell field to gain clarity on STAP cells. For this reason it is reasonable and at times helpful to critically discuss the data, past findings, concerns about elements of publications, and such. However, it is not helpful and is in fact against the policy of this blog to engage
Note on policy on commenting and how it relates to STAP cells situation Read More »
Acid-induced pluripotent or even totipotent stem cells, called STAP cells, have thrown the stem cell field for a bit of a loop. For more background see my interview with the key public face of STAP, Dr. Charles Vacanti, as well as my review of their paper, my top 5 reasons for skepticism, and some other thoughts. Do you believe in STAP?
Latest developments and scoops on STAP cells Read More »
This is a crowdsource page for people who want to post their findings on their attempts to validate the STAP stem cell ( ＳＴＡＰ細胞) method. I’m going to color successful or even moderately encouraging reports green and failures/discouraging results in red. *For those with longer attention spans, see some additional important considerations for this crowdsourcing effort at
I’ve been doing a poll on the extent to which people believe or do not believe in the stress-induced STAP stem cells reported in Nature last week. In just a few days of poll, we’ve got almost 400 respondents, which is great. It’s still not a scientific poll, but the results (above) are interesting for
STAP cell poll: interesting results & regional differences Read More »
In two Nature papers (here and here) published today researchers report the astounding finding of reprogramming differentiated cells back to a pluripotent or even totipotent state simply by exposing the cells to extreme environmental stress, creating cells they called STAP cells. Update: see more thoughts on STAP stem cells here. STAP cells: stressing the cell
Review of Obokata STAP cells Nature papers Read More »
I’ve been fortunate to interview some of the greats in the stem cell field for this blog and host debates between key players. Please note that just because I have interviewed folks does not mean I agree with them or that they agree with me. The point is to establish dialogue on key issues. As
Interviews with leaders and top players in the stem cell field Read More »
My lab just published a somewhat provocative paper (still in unproofed form at this point) arguing that iPS cells are very similar in some ways to cancer cells. How did we get to that conclusion (discussed in this post today, part 1 of the story) and what’s the back story on this paper (discussed in a later
iPS cells are similar to cancer cells: part 1 of discussion of new paper Read More »