Imagine receiving a smidgeon of thymus gland along with a donated heart or kidney, to fool the immune system into accepting the transplant. Authors of a new study argue that might be possible, based on their new proof-of-principle experiments. The team from the Epithelial Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine lab at the Francis Crick …
CRISPR applications in the real world The “breakthrough” gene-editing tool, CRISPR Cas9, has been utilized for various purposes since its popularization and commercialization in the early 2010s. While possible uses of gene editing in humans tend to get the most attention, the application of CRISPR-Cas9 also encompasses the animal world and the analysis of a …
Today I’m posting about pet peeves in the science lab. This is an update to and expansion of a post from many years ago. Who doesn’t have some lab pet peeves? And, yeah, we are all probably guilty at one time or another of driving other people a bit nuts with our own idiosyncrasies that …
A new film-commercial entitled Awakening pitches unproven exosomes and has already been possibly tied to the troubled stem cell supplier firm Liveyon, but now it seems that the links go far deeper including a possible relative of Liveyon leader John Kosolcharoen. Even so, Kosolcharoen (pictured with another Liveyon leader Alan Gaveck below in a web …
More Liveyon links to exosome Awakening film include potential relative Read More »
Last year an odd pub made the big claim that the interstitium is a new organ. I didn’t buy that. Now an over-the-top stem cell advertisement that recently ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune (U-T) is piggybacking off of the supposed “interstitium as new tissue” claim to make all kinds of other claims about some …
Wild stem cell ad piggybacks off hyped ‘interstitium is new tissue’ pub Read More »
Maybe the announcement that Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will be leaving the FDA soon shouldn’t have caught us all off-guard, but it did. Gottlieb isn’t a perfect Commissioner, but he brought a sensible, open approach to running the FDA that was very refreshing. Amongst all the top leadership in the Trump administration, Scott Gottlieb stood out …
Scott Gottlieb leaving FDA: possible reasons, impact on stem cell field, & more Read More »
What is the Billionaire’s blood & stem cell club and how does one get into that? The focus of what I’m satirically calling this “billionaire’s club” is on anti-aging and prolonging life. If you have a lot of money and are willing to take risks on yourself toward some specific goal such as staying young …
Anti-aging and the billionaires young blood & stem cell club Read More »
Ain’t nothing like the real thing…right? No, by the ‘real thing’ I’m not talking about Coke versus Pepsi or Coke versus Diet Coke, but rather stem cells. (On a side note there’s still some people who apparently believe the stem cell myth that there are stem cells in Pepsi). I get a regular stream of …
Is there a proliferating stem cell fake news problem in the biotech world? More broadly, the SEC is cracking down on the mess that is fake biotech news, but what about fake news on stem cell biotechs more specifically? Already in the past year I’ve seen examples of possible stem cell fake news. Hyped press releases (PR) …
Stem cell fake news driving biotech investors or vice versa…or what? Read More »
Haruko Obokata reportedtly has written a book that is somewhat of a memoir of her life including the STAP cell scandal. The exact nature of the book remains mostly a mystery at this point. It should be out on the 2nd anniversary of the STAP cell papers being published. Kyodo News gives some more details …
Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子) new book on STAP cells & more Read More »