As a stem cell scientist I hear all the time about how the pipeline from the lab to the clinic is incredibly slow and terribly inefficient. Meanwhile millions of people have conditions that the current state-of-the-art medicine cannot effectively treat. Somehow we need to make a fundamental change to improve this process. I think one […]
Big tent team science: new ideas about clinical trials Read More »
It was an honor and pleasure yesterday to show my friends, Roman Reed and Keri Kimler, around my stem cell lab here at UC Davis School of Medicine. My lab members got a chance to show Keri and Roman some of the interesting research we have ongoing involving ES cells and human iPS cells, funded
Two people making a million-person difference in the stem cell field Read More »
With the bewildering amount of news about stem cells, how do we tell the difference between hype and hope? Although the words “hype” and “hope” only differ by one letter, sometimes it is hard to tell them apart in real life, but of course they are very different things. So how do we know when
Stem cells: distinguishing hype and hope Read More »
This year’s World Stem Cell Summit is looking to be an amazing meeting and I highly recommend that you attend. By going you can learn a great deal about stem cells whether you are a stem cell scientists or not. But in addition, the Summit offers the opportunity to learn a lot more including about
Many reasons why you should attend this year’s World Stem Cell Summit! Read More »
After my post 2 months ago about the pressure I have received to stop doing this stem cell blog, I have been flooded with positive feedback (including by some of the top bigwigs in the stem cell field who chose to remain anonymous) and I have been inundated with questions. They had many different comments,
Who wants to shut down this stem cell blog and why? Read More »
As some of you know, I had prostate cancer in 2009 and by the looks of the pathology report, it seemed like a bad one. Part of my own unique experience of being a cancer patient is that I also happen to be a cancer biologist. You might think this would be helpful, but really
What cancer has taught me 584 days into my battle Read More »
UPDATE: I’ve now updated the poll to allow readers to choose up to 2 answers since this is important given the new option of “If facing a disease…” One of the cool things about writing this blog is that I get to meet so many amazing people including patients and their families as well
Stem Cell Treatment Poll Read More »
While most readers here tell me they greatly value our stem cell blog, after some threats I’m wondering: is it time to shut this blog down? Some people are saying I should or else! Unfortunately, threats to scientists, scientific openness, and science itself are not unusual. This stem cell blog in its current incarnation has
Shut Down This Stem Cell Blog or Else! Read More »
One of the commenters on this blog told me, in response to my post on the opponents of stem cell research, to “get a life.” What’s a “life” according to this guy? To me? To you? We all lead different lives and have different ideas about what is a valuable life. We all face different
What is a survivor? Dan Zenka, Senior VP of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, recently pondered this question in an excellent post on his blog. The post has also drawn more than 50 comments, which I found very interesting based on the range of opinions and different perspectives. The comments are about prostate cancer, but could
What is a survivor? Read More »