One of the great areas of confusion over the human cloning development this week is whether human cloning is legal or illegal. With few exceptions, human cloning in general is legal in the US. Update: in 2020 it still appears that reproductive human cloning is legal in the US. It just hasn’t gotten that much […]
Deja you: human cloning generally legal in the US Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has confirmed that one of the patient in a clinical trial that it is running for treatment of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, has shown a striking improvement in vision. The patient reportedly had 20/400 vision prior to treatment and now has 20/40 vision after treatment. ACT uses an
Striking improvement in vision in one ACT trial participant Read More »
I recently did a poll (still running here) about a hypothetical stem cell hotshot called Dr. Famous who might have published a recent paper that was sexy, but crappy. This situation sure rang a bell with a lot of people! In fact, a half dozen people contacted me directly (and privately) to talk about it
Go ahead & blog about Dr. Famous’ sexy, but crappy paper, most people say Read More »
To blog or not to blog? Sometimes that is the question and a tough one. Keep going or shut it down? Let’s say that you are a blogger and scientist. I am one of those people wearing both of those hats. A sexy paper comes out in your field. It’s all over the Internet and
To blog or not to blog about sexy, but crappy paper from Dr. Famous? Read More »
UPDATE: Unfortunately the Betatrophin paper discussed here originally back in 2013 has now largely been proven to have come to incorrect conclusions (for more read this). Today Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) reported the discovery, in a paper in Cell by Harvard Professor Doug Melton, of a powerful new hormone called Betatrophin that can stimulate
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) is making a big announcement today about stems, the biggest they say in their almost decade-long existence. Last night I speculated/predicted some possible announcements. Today I’m betting they will announce the discovery of a novel factor called Betatrophin. More on Betatrophin in a minute, but first why do I think
What is Betatrophin & why is Harvard so excited about it? Read More »
I recently did a poll asking people if they are or are not going to ISSCR and in either case, why. The results (at right) are pretty interesting. The #1 answer was that respondents were not going and the reason was that attending would be too expensive. Two other reasons given for not attending (tied
ISSCR 2013 poll results: encouraging for ISSCR, but more travel awards needed Read More »
It has been fascinating in the last year to see the unfolding story of mutations in histone variant H3.3 in pediatric glioblastoma and related tumors. It seems amazing that in just over a year, a whole new area of cancer research has rapidly progressed. As I discussed in a recent post, histone H3.3 is a
Allis lab Science paper on histone H3.3 in pediatric brain cancer Read More »
According to the international ranking service, Leiden Ranking, the USA comes out on top for high impact science. Out of their top Leiden Ranked 25 universities ranked by the percentage of papers in the top 10% of their respective fields for science overall, the USA had 22 of the top spots. MIT ranked first and
Leiden Ranking: USA does great science, but does not play well with others Read More »
Back-to-back papers (here and here) in Nature Biotechnology report the transdifferentiation (now often simply referred to as “direct reprogramming”) of plain old fibroblasts into brain cells called oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). OPCs are a remarkably useful kind of brain cell that generates myelin, which insulates nerves. OPCs are thought to have great therapeutic potential for