Sometimes a situation is so bad or stressful that it just calls out for some comic relief and the STAP cell mess seems to be one of those. Below are various silly attempts at STAP humor to hopefully release some of that stress. (By the way you might enjoy this 2020 piece on whatever happened to […]
TGIF! Some attempts at humor to release STAP cell stress Read More »
A RIKEN committee has rejected an appeal by Dr. Haruko Obokata regarding its finding of research misconduct related to two papers in Nature claiming the production of so-called STAP cells and STAP stem cells. Earlier the committee had ruled that Obokata had allegedly engaged in misconduct and that there problems with the research. Obokata appealed
RIKEN rejects Obokata appeal on alleged STAP cell misconduct Read More »
A paper has been published reporting that repeated attempts to make so-called “acid bath stem cells” have failed. At the end of January it was claimed in two Nature papers that a mild acid treatment created pluripotent or even totipotent stem cells that that the authors termed “STAP cells” or “STAP stem cells” (collectively referred
Perspectives on Lee Lab F1000 Paper that STAP Cell Method Does Not Work Read More »
Parabiosis and aging When it comes to anti-aging science, creepy meets cool with “young blood” in new blood mixing studies just published. The researchers report that blood from young animals literally makes older animals younger. That striking claim is made by both of two independent teams. They published high-profile papers that just came
Parabiosis and young blood anti-aging in mice Read More »
The future is now. Or so goes the expression. For CIRM, it rings true today. Last year I blogged about what we might expect from the new CIRM that would evolve and take form in the future. I was particularly thinking about this coming incarnation of CIRM, which I called CIRM 2.0, as it related
Welcome CIRM 2.0 and President Mills Read More »
What is Human SCNT? A new human therapeutic cloning paper is out today, the third in a matter of months. This one is from the lab group of Dr. Dieter Egli published in Nature demonstrating production of nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells (NT-ESCs) from an adult human somatic donor via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This
Cloning is cloned again: New Nature Paper is 3rd on Human SCNT Read More »
The ultimate fate of the two Nature STAP cell papers remains in troubled limbo. One of the senior STAP cell authors, Dr. Sasai, held a news conference yesterday in Japan that included a call for the papers to be retracted. He was variously quoted as believing in STAP cells or alternatively as just thinking it
Lessons from STAP cell fiasco so far Read More »
What’s going on with the STAP cell situation now that it is into its third month? It’s getting worse instead of better or clearer, at least in part due to RIKEN’s incomplete investigation. What’s going on with STAP? New RIKEN Press Conference RIKEN reportedly held an odd sort of limited press conference today that TJO
STAP April Update: Super Stressful on All Fronts Read More »
Yesterday was a crazy day for the STAP cell situation. We had RIKEN releasing a scathing internal investigatory report and then some folks in the media got all worked up about a single PCR assay result that Dr. Ken Lee posted on ResearchGate. Some of the reporters/science writers hyped their headlines/articles on this situation as though
Dr. Lee STAP Result, Hyped by Media, in Proper Context Read More »
RIKEN Institute in Japan has formally announced the complete findings of its investigation into the STAP cell research, Haruko Obokata, and Nature papers. RIKEN almost entirely blamed Obokata for the STAP mess in this report and they didn’t mince words. The RIKEN report alleged that Obokata had engaged in two instances of “research misconduct” as
RIKEN Report Is Virtual Acid Bath of Criticism for Obokata Read More »