Cloning of animals is becoming a big, global business, and Hwang Woo-Suk is a major player here. Hwang Woo-Suk and animal cloning It turns out that this reproductive cloning of animals goes well beyond making duplicates of pets for sentimental customers at $100,000 a copy. Cloning of livestock by agribusinesses is becoming fairly common. Some […]
Cloning Factory in China Has Familiar Partner: Hwang Woo-Suk Read More »
After about a week of polling on views of shirtgate (also known as shirtstorm), the results are in and there are some pretty clear findings. The poll sought to measure people’s views of Dr. Matt Taylor’s wearing of a shirt covered in depictions of scantily clad woman including some with guns during a TV interview
Shirtgate / Shirtstorm poll results point to a polar community Read More »
An open letter to CIRM. By Jeanne Loring As the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) celebrates its successes on its 10th anniversary, there is coincidentally a less happy CIRM-related event. One of CIRM’s first investments in stem cell research was a network of dedicated stem cell laboratories throughout California. This program, called “shared labs”
Loring, et al. Open Letter to CIRM: Continue Shared Labs Read More »
The following is a response to my Open Letter to the UK Parliament on mitochondrial transfer/3-parent technology from Drs. Peter Braude and Robin Lovell-Badge. Dear Professor Knoepfler, We read your open letter to the UK Parliament and the Science and Technology Committee with interest and concern. We are two scientists, like you, with particular interests
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 »
I had the idea of something called Prostate cancer postcards. In a few days it will be the 5-year anniversary of my diagnosis with a very serious form of prostate cancer. So far since then I’ve been doing pretty well (knock on wood). I am still getting PSA tested and life still has a cancer thread
Prostate cancer postcards Read More »
The California Stem Cell Agency CIRM seems to be in budget cutting mode these days, which from a general perspective makes sense as CIRM seeks to continue operating on its remaining funding through a longer period of time as far out as to 2020. However, not all cuts are necessarily positive. For example, CIRM reportedly (note: many
CIRM 2.0 Should Include Bridges Training Program Read More »
This post is the first in a series about the Clinicaltrials.gov website. This piece is an interview the Director, Dr. Deborah Zarin. I want to thank her for taking the time to answer my questions. Later, I will post Part 2 in which I discuss my concerns about the trend of for-profit stem cell clinic trials
Interview with Clinicaltrials.gov Director Deborah Zarin Read More »
Sperm and brain tumors? Sometimes in science there are unexpected threads tying seemingly very different things together. Unraveling the knots in these threads can lead to new insights into important developmental processes and mechanisms of disease. My lab studies epigenomic and transcription factors including a molecule called histone variant H3.3 (more here on H3.3). H3.3
What is the connection between sperm and brain tumors? Read More »