In the past year there has been a great deal of attention given to the potential use of CRISPR-Cas9 for gene editing in human embryos. An important recent development, described in a new NPR article by Rob Stein, is the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in healthy human embryos for developmental biology research by assistant professor Fredrik […]
Interview with Fredrik Lanner who is CRISPR’ing healthy human embryos Read More »
A stem cell/regenerative clinic firm called the Lung Institute is facing a filing of a proposed class action suit. Update: Note that this firm also goes by the name the Lung Health Institute and now as of 2019-2020 it does not appear to offer stem cells anymore, perhaps focusing on PRP. You might also find
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Clinic Lung Institute Read More »
After six and a half years blogging here, I’ve seen so much weird stuff. Not all of it was even “bloggable” due to its crazy, not-safe-for-work nature. For TGIF this week, here are 10 of the weirdest posts from this blog over the years. Where’s the Beef? Reality Check on Stem Cell Test Tube Burger
Some weird posts: testicle soup, Kim Kardashian, zombies Read More »
By Gaetan Burgio CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has dramatically changed our way to perform biological experiments. While highly efficient and easy to use, one limitation with CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing technology is the occurrence of off-target effects and the restriction of the PAM recognition sequence. Many modifications from the original system have been proposed to improve
Gaetan Burgio New Data & Theory on NgAgo versus CRISPR Read More »
Has it really been 10 years since induced pluripotent stem cells (aka IPS cells or IPSC) came onto the scene in the stem cell field? Yes, it was a decade ago that now Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka (山中伸弥) published that seminal Cell paper on reprogramming to make mouse IPS cells and then human IPS cells
Yamanaka’s baby turns 10: ten IPS cell hot button bullet points Read More »
The REGROW Act is a bill that seeks to lessen the regulatory burden to accelerate getting stem cells to patients more quickly, but it over-reaches so much that it would almost certainly do harm to patients and maybe to the stem cell field as a whole. The REGROW Act, which is sponsored by Senator Mark
REGROW Act 2.0 still no-go with big risks to patients & field Read More »
ISSCR 2016’s first plenary session is focused on stem cells & cancer. I was really excited about this one even before the meeting as this topic is a major focus of my own lab. Here’s the lineup for this plenary with great expertise in stem cells & cancer from across the globe: President’s Address: Sean Morrison, Children’s
Austin Smith talk at ISSCR 2016: a ground state inhibitor pathway Read More »
Today a new Nature paper from Dr. Mary Herbert’s group in the UK has found a key problem with mitochondrial replacement therapy that fits with data from others. Mitochondrial replacement data The goal of preventing mitochondrial disease using various kinds of genome transfer technologies is a noble one, but mitochondrial replacement therapy has faced a
New Herbert lab Nature paper reinforces mitochondrial replacement Achilles heel Read More »
The gene editing technology CRISPR has been arguably the top story in the biomedical world in the last two years, but going forward there is a CRISPR challenger in upstart gene editing technology NgAgo. For more background on NgAgo and the key first published paper on its genetic modification characteristics see my post here. In the comments on that
NgAgo a-go-go: main bullet points on upstart CRISPR challenger Read More »
Haruko Obokata is most well-known for her role as first author of the now retracted two STAP cell Nature papers. These manuscripts claimed to have made pluripotent and even totipotent stem cells simply by stressing cells out with acid treatment or in other ways. Nobody else could get this method to work to create the so-called
Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子) website posts dubious STAP cell validation data Read More »