The classic sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage keeps coming to mind for me as I see and do research involving organoids. In it, the heroes travel inside of the human body in a craft, observing all kinds of awesome biology in an up close and personal kind of way on route into the brain with the goal […]
Fantastic organoid voyage: views from inside organoids Read More »
You probably have heard by now about the controversial video (below) showing the senior director of medical services of Planned Parenthood, Deborah Nucatola, discussing the procurement and distribution of fetal tissues from abortions for research. The film was taken secretly using a hidden camera by anti-abortion activists who concealed their real identities. It was edited
Perspectives on Planned Parenthood Fetal Tissue Video Read More »
In a new, thought-provoking paper today in Nature, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and a multi-institutional team report a significant advance toward potential novel ways to treat mitochondrial diseases. What are these illnesses? Mitochondrial diseases are rare, but devastating disorders caused by genetic mutations. Today they are largely impossible to treat in meaningful ways other than palliative care. Some
Mitalipov Nature pub review: IPSC & SCNT for mitochondrial disease Read More »
Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Macular Degeneration By Michael Cea Stem Cell Analyst & Advocate (editor’s note: piece was originally posted on Michael’s blog here; follow Michael on Twitter @msemporda) Masayo Takahashi interview Having followed closely the developments in programs using pluripotent based therapeutics I was fortunate during ISSCR2015 to have the opportunity to
Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Vision Read More »
The transhumanism movement has been garnering attention lately for a variety of views including embracing aspects of heritable human genetic modification. Earlier this year I interviewed geneticist and transhumanist, George Church. In this post I interview molecular biophysicist and transhumanist Maria Konovalenko. She is the program coordinator at the Science for Life Extension Foundation. In
Interview with transhumanism leader Maria Konovalenko Read More »
What’s on your mind on this Monday morning and are you caffeinated enough yet? Depending on where you live it may even be time for dinner, bed, or already early Tuesday. Here are some Monday musings… To get safe and effective stem cell treatments to patients in a responsible, compliant manner you need commercial efforts
Monday morning musings: stocks, ISSCR, grants, CRISPR, New Book Read More »
Organoids are pretty big in stem cells right now with the last couple of years having attracted a lot of media attention on mini lungs, mini brains, mini kidneys, mini guts and more, giving the impression that scientists know how to specify and organise cells into mini functional organs in the lab. Organoids have become
Carla Kim & Hans Clevers talks on organoids at #ISSCR2015 Read More »
The day of plenary is the most enjoyable in my view including at ISSCR 2015 on the first day with a Yamanaka talk. You don’t need to make the choice between sessions and the judgement on the viability of shifting sessions versus staying put and listening to the slightly less relevant. ISSCR 2015 plenary was,
Overview of Yamanaka Talk at #ISSCR2015 by Heather Main Read More »
The publicly available medical literature database PubMed can be found here. I recommend if you are doing a search for a stem cell paper on a disease of you interest that you plug into the search box the following: stem cells[title] AND XXXX In this case delete XXXX and put in the name of the
Search for a paper Read More »
A decade ago I wrote an article in the journal Nature Biotechnology about the rise of a new gene editing technology called zinc finger nucleases (ZNF). It was one of those “drumbeat” discoveries: at the time, my sense was it would revolutionize how we deliver genes to cells and tissues, and profoundly change the way
Guest Post by Chris Scott–The Great CRISPR Controversy: What’s Next? Read More »