Search Results for: hype

What is the FDA’s appropriate role in regulating medical innovations such as stem cells?

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
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We need medical innovations, but what is the appropriate way for agencies like the FDA to regulate the process and fight bogus interventions based solely on hype? Without innovation, medicine becomes stagnant and hope fades for patients who have any one of numerous conditions that are currently inadequately addressed by medicine. I can relate on …

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The ‘Holy Crap’ Effect: Reflecting on Big Splash Papers

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
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I spend some hours each week reading and thinking about the recent scientific literature and I’m sure many of you do the same thing, but do we gravitate towards hyped “holy crap” papers? Every so often, a new paper erupts on the scene. It makes a big splash with a flashy entrance that captures people’s …

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Why I oppose de-extinction of woolly mammoths

February 1, 2021 / By / 5 Comments
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De-extinction is big right now and some of the extinct target creatures are big too like the woolly mammoth. “Let’s bring back these extinct creatures”, say proponents. Wouldn’t it be cool? I have to admit seeing a woolly mammoth, mastodon, or saber tooth tiger would be cool, but such efforts would not be without consequences …

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100% reprogramming efficiency reports Jacob Hanna

February 1, 2021 / By / 6 Comments

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 …

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What would you do with an extra brain?

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
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Let’s putting on our “thinking caps”….er, extra brains, get our geek on, and have some fun imagining where stem cell technology may lead us in the coming century. Unhappy with the one brain you have? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a 2nd one too? A new one? Researchers have grown mini brain-like structures from …

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Janet Rossant, ISSCR President, on her goals, cloning, non-compliant clinics, iPS cells, and future of field

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment

New ISSCR President, Dr. Janet Rossant, kindly agreed to do an interview with me focused on the future of ISSCR, her plans for her tenure, and some key issues in the field. Dr. Rossant is Chief of Research at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. 1. The stem cell arena is a very rapidly changing one …

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