A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel led by Jacob Hanna reports today near perfect reprogramming efficiency to make induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by eliminating a single factor called Mbd3 from the cellular equation. On first glance, the Nature article (Rais, et al.) seems to be all about boosting cellular reprogramming efficiency to close […]
100% reprogramming efficiency reports Jacob Hanna Read More »
I recently did a poll on people’s reactions to the new paper reporting use an all-chemical approach to making iPS cells through cellular reprogramming. I got a good number of responses relatively quickly. The results so far suggest that by far most people think it is too soon to know the importance of this new
Cellular Dynamics, the stem cell company founded by Dr. James Thomson, is filing for an IPO. Hat tip to David Jensen. The company, which will go under the stock symbol ICEL, is focused on iPS cell-produced products. They describe their portfolio as follows: Cellular Dynamics is developing and deploying a number of cell types derived from
Cellular Dynamics IPO: big money, iPS cell IP rights, trade secrets Read More »
I love collaborative science. I believe it advances science faster. An example? My lab recently collaborated with another lab here at UC Davis of Dr. Oliver Fiehn, a metabolomics guru. Our paper on this just came out in PLOS ONE here. Admittedly, we got scooped by another lab that published the first ever metabolomics paper
New paper on iPS cell metabolomics: striking, yet incomplete metabolic reprogramming Read More »
Sheng Ding’s lab reports today in Cell Stem Cell (you can read it here) that they have replaced all genetic factors in a new iPS cell reprogramming method except Oct4. The other factors were replaced by chemical compounds. Thus, we continue a major transition in the iPS cell field away from genes and toward chemicals.
From genes to chemicals: iPS cell field, reprogramming in transition Read More »
I’ve been thinking more about the steady stream of epigenetic clock research out there. How convincing is the research on such clocks? Do they tightly relate to human biological age? The related notion of turning back such hypothetical clocks to reverse aging is exciting but controversial. It doesn’t help that some are hyping all of
Is DNA methylation destiny? Diving into new epigenetic clock research Read More »
Altos Labs is an intriguing multi-institution experiment in so-called rejuvenation research all rolled into one biotech. This relatively new entity headquartered in California has multiple Nobel laureates in the biomedical field in leadership. Even more importantly it has a large group of great researchers leading its individual research labs. This all leads to high expectations,
Some surprises from new analysis of Altos Labs papers Read More »
I recently wrote about stem cell-related ideas for anti-aging and even cheating death, but there are of course other approaches including drugs like metformin. A new article outlines a massive research funding plan to tackle aging. Let’s start with that. Recommend reads including anti-aging Saudi Arabia plans to spend $1 billion a year discovering treatments to
Weekly reads: $1B Saudi anti-aging push, OCT4 necklace, cancer trial wows, coffee brain Read More »
At the beginning of the year I wrote about a new kind of biotech called Altos Labs. It’s very different in some ways from other institutions. I find it an intriguing research entity. Where do things stand now with Altos Labs a few months later? More information, new ideas, and questions have popped up in the
Altos Labs: mission, leadership, jobs, & CIRM Read More »
Some key questions about stem cells often go unanswered like ‘where do stem cells come from?’ The goal of this post is for me as a stem cell biologist to answer your questions on stem cells. What’s in this article? The Niche | Adult stem cells | Where do stem cells come from? | What
Where do stem cells come from? Expert answers Read More »