Today is part of 4 (the last) of my interview with Dr. Arnold Caplan, MSC godfather and guru. You can read parts 1-3 of the interview here, here, and here. In this post I focus on my discussion with Caplan on translation of stem cells to patients and the FDA. During our conversation we talked about some […]
Interview with Arnold Caplan, Part 4: the FDA and the Future Read More »
I recently interview Arnold Caplan, the father of the MSC field, and published part 1 of the interview (you can read it here). Today in part 2 we cover more topics of great importance related to MSCs including propagation, placebos, and patients as well as publishing. A hot topic in the stem cell world more
Interview with Arnold Caplan Part 2 Read More »
The mesenchymal stem cell (MSC). So important and yet so misunderstood? People pronounce it in different ways. People isolate the MSCs in different ways. Each person’s MSCs are very different. Each lab’s MSCs are different. (see picture above of MSCs showing fibroblastic morphology; source is Wikipedia) Someone once told me that MSCs are the same
Would an MSC by any other name still smell as sweet? Read More »
Over the last few weeks, I have enjoyed talking with and interviewing Dr. Allan Wu, of The Morrow Institute on stem cell cosmetic procedures. I was impressed greatly by his talk at the World Stem Cell Summit last year. Dr. Wu is a fellowship trained Surgical Molecular Biologist with a background in Molecular Embryology and a board
Interview with Regenerative Surgeon, Dr. Allan Wu Read More »
In the comments section of a recent post on adult stem cell treatment safety on this blog, the CEO of RNL Europe, Glenn McGee made the philosophical statement that “silence kills science”. It’s an interesting thought and I think to some extent there is truth in it. Openness, data-sharing, dialogue…these are all good things. In
I just received a copy of the CIRM proposed response to the IOM recommendations. Regarding what I believe to be the most important element, revamping the CIRM Board (aka ICOC), I was interested to see that CIRM (via President Jonathan Thomas) recommended that all institutional members of the Board no longer vote on whether to
“Solomonic” CIRM Proposal: Institutional Board Members Would not Vote on Grants Read More »
The headline quoting George Church reads: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Supposedly Harvard Geneticist George Church, according to Der Spiegel magazine (and gazillions of other mainstream media outlets that translated the German piece including here), wants to clone a Neanderthal baby using an unholy combination of stem cell and genetics technologies. The only problem
George Church: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Read More »
Human cloning is an important issue at both scientific and societal levels. Earlier I included a guest post from bioethicist, Arthur Caplan, on human cloning. Today I am posting a short Q&A with Nobel Laureate John Gurdon. I asked Gurdon three specific questions and below each I have listed his answer. My sense is that
Nobel Laureate John Gurdon not a fan of idea of human cloning Read More »
Hungarian Mit nevezünk őssejtnek? Az emberi test több száz különböző, a mindennapi életünkhöz nélkülözhetetlen sejttípusból épül fel. Ezen sejtek biztosítják testünk folyamatos működését, felelősek szívverésünkért, azért, hogy agyunk gondolkodik, vesénk megtisztítja vérünket, hogy lekopó bőrsejtjeink pótlódnak stb. Az őssejtek egyedi feladata az összes különféle működő sejttípus előállítása. Az őssejtek felelősek az új sejtek képződéséért. Az
Mit nevezünk őssejtnek? Read More »
A paper just came out in Nature yesterday entitled: “Nuclear genome transfer in human oocytes eliminates mitochondrial DNA variants.” It’s surely risky of me to say this, but is this paper really a clinically-relevant breakthrough for mitochondrial disease worthy of a Nature paper? The study as science is fine and very interesting, but it seems quite
My concerns about Nature paper on Genome Transfer for mitochondrial disease Read More »