Remember that old TV show the Odd Couple with very proper Felix Unger and his polar opposite Oscar Madison who has all kinds of baggage? They’ve cloned it into a remake to be on TV soon here in the US in 2015. It seems only fitting then that actual human cloning research has a new […]
The Odd Couple of Cloning Research: Mitalipov & Woo Suk Hwang Unite Read More »
There was a time I used to watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a regular basis and for a few years, I really enjoyed it. After a while I kind of lost interest. Today Olbermann does a sports show on ESPN and it’s just not the same. He also seems like he’s not the same
Keith Olbermann, the Dr. Oz of Sports? Read More »
It seems hard to believe it was a year ago that the STAP cell Nature papers came out to much fanfare on January 29, 2014. These now discredited and retracted papers reported a supposed new method to easily make reprogrammed powerful stem cells, a finding touted as a Nobel Prize-worthy discovery. Now a year later on
Personal Reflections on STAP Cell Mess On 1-Year Anniversary Read More »
What’s the deal with the tension between José Silva and Jacob Hanna over pluripotency? Researchers probing how to reprogram cells into powerful stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells or IPSCs) and what the molecular mechanisms are behind this process have become entangled in a conflict. Of course over the years scientists including stem cell scientists have
Silva Comments on MBD3/NuRD Debate with Jacob Hanna Read More »
2015 Review of Vogelstein “Bad Luck” Cancer & Stem Cell Paper in Science January 02, 2015 2014 What Does New Paper Mean for Future of Nuclear Transfer ES Cells? November 9, 2014 Encouraging New Paper on ACT Stem Cell-Based Trial for Macular Degeneration October 14, 2014 Top 10 Takeaways From Harvard Stem Cell Diabetes
Post-Publication Paper Reviews & Commentaries Read More »
A new paper in Science by Bert Vogelstein suggests that a good part of cancer is attributable to bad luck. There are so many big questions about cancer. They resonate with me very strongly as a cancer researcher and a cancer survivor myself (more on my cancer story here). What really causes cancer? Why does
Review of Bert Vogelstein “Bad Luck” Cancer Science pub Read More »
The Japanese research institute RIKEN has come full circle in a way on the STAP cell scandal. Note that the STAP papers included not only authors from RIKEN, but also from Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. With its final report released today (also a powerpoint of images were released including the one showing a
Perspectives on final RIKEN report on STAP cell scandal & what comes next Read More »
The Niche is the top, most authoritative stem cell and regenerative medicine blog on the web and the only one to our knowledge written by a professor. It is mainly written by Professor Paul Knoepfler of UC Davis School of Medicine, an internationally respected stem cell biologist and educator. Knoepfler is an advocate of rigorous
About Us, The Niche and Knoepfler Lab Read More »
How does one go about cheating death? Who doesn’t want to cheat death? I know I certainly do. Can stem cells help many people in the immediate future to escape death (pictured here in personified form as Death t from Wikipedia)? Recent headlines on new stem cell-related clinical developments would make you think so and
The cheating death excitation Read More »
CIRM issued a press release (PR) a few days ago unveiling CIRM 2.0, a new form of the agency and funding of novel efforts. The PR focused on action by its Governing Board to fund three Alpha Clinic programs for $8 million each at City of Hope (LA), UCLA, and UCSD. The Alpha Clinics will
CIRM 2.0 Launches Alpha Clinics & Continues Bridges Program Read More »