New genetic modification technology such as CRISPR-Cas9 has opened the door to transformative biological research, but it has also set the table for some novel kinds of technological problems for which we aren’t at all prepared including one that I call the “gene spill”. The striking potential upsides to CRISPR paired with some of the …
A new possible environmental disaster: the gene spill Read More »
Clinical research on Type I Diabetes is one of the most exciting and promising areas of stem cells and regenerative medicine for human disease. Two of the coolest companies out there in this arena have been ViaCyte and BetaLogics (owned by J&J). For more on ViaCyte see my interview with President and CEO Paul Laikind …
ViaCyte on the Rise: First Diabetes Trial Data & Acquires BetaLogics IP Read More »
Politicians including Trump may start talking about CRISPR more and more in the near future. What if politicians weighed in on CRISPR with Tweets or statements in debates? What if this happened during the particularly charged time of a political campaign such as now? Below is a Saturday science satire in that spirit of imagined Tweets …
If Trump & Other Politicians Debated #CRISPR: Saturday Science Satire Read More »
The patent dispute on CRISPR between UC/Jennifer Doudna and The Broad/Feng Zhang has been the subject of major attention including in a recent piece on Stanford Center for Law & Biosciences Blog. There is a lot of confusion over this important CRISPR dispute so I turned to a patent expert for their take on this via an interview …
Patent expert weighs in on CRISPR dispute between UC & Broad Read More »
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In December I attended and spoke at the World Stem Cell Summit in Atlanta. It was a great meeting, but also I had the chance to go visit the Martin Luther King (MLK) Monument and tour his birth home. It was a very inspirational experience. MLK has been a hero …
Science blogging is somewhat of a communal exercise. At least, it should be and cool biomed blogs are a great community. One of the most invigorating aspects of blogging is finding new blogs that are worthwhile and edgy. Below I list some of my recommendations for blogs that you might not be familiar with, but …
Cool biomed blogs you may not heard of: a drugmonkey, a med student, #CRISPR, & more Read More »
Over at RetractionWatch, their team does a great job following retractions of science papers. Sadly, the number of published manuscript retractions gives them more than enough material to post several times a day. There’s another phenomenon going on that I think might warrant their increased attention: the possibly rising number of retractions or corrections of science …
Science press releases behaving badly: time to start tracking their retractions? Read More »
CRISPR is the hottest new biotechnology and the top development of 2015 according to Science Magazine. What will the new year of 2016 bring on the CRISPR front? It’s clear there will be more meetings on CRISPR ethics and policy (heck, we are having one right here at UC Davis on May 26), but what …
“Take a Selfie”, has become a catch phrase in pop culture. There is a preoccupation with capturing one’s own existence and key moments in pictures. Another trend is a DIY culture including taking initiative with one’s own health. When combined together we are in the midst of a larger trend in medicine where patients will …
Take a medical selfie: a taste of your own medicine Read More »
I just got back from a historic summit on human genetic modification in Washington, D.C. New genetic modification technology, termed CRISPR-Cas9, has both made genetic modification a relatively simple matter for scientists and human genetic modification much more likely in the near future. Heritable human genetic modification could prevent some rare genetic diseases so there …