In choices of fictional books to read I gravitate toward sci-fi and fantasy. For example, in late 2014 and through the first few months of this year I read all the Game of Thrones books. The first three of those were the best and I thought definitely better than the TV show, although it’s pretty good […]
Recommended thought-provoking books…and one I’ve been writing Read More »
Google is reportedly getting into the genetic modification business. It plans to use a sexy, new genetic technology called “gene drive”, which has both excited and unsettled scientists due to its great power to make GMOs in nature via reproductive chain reactions. This move toward genetic modification is part of a larger trend of Google
With CRISPR, is GMO also for Google? Read More »
The classic sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage keeps coming to mind for me as I see and do research involving organoids. In it, the heroes travel inside of the human body in a craft, observing all kinds of awesome biology in an up close and personal kind of way on route into the brain with the goal
Fantastic organoid voyage: views from inside organoids Read More »
Why do some scientists commit suicide and can such suicides be prevented? Clearly it can be hard or even impossible to tell from the outside what things may be like on the inside for anybody whether they are a scientist or not. Last year the world of science, and in particular the stem cell and
Scientists and suicide Read More »
Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Macular Degeneration By Michael Cea Stem Cell Analyst & Advocate (editor’s note: piece was originally posted on Michael’s blog here; follow Michael on Twitter @msemporda) Masayo Takahashi interview Having followed closely the developments in programs using pluripotent based therapeutics I was fortunate during ISSCR2015 to have the opportunity to
Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Vision Read More »
The transhumanism movement has been garnering attention lately for a variety of views including embracing aspects of heritable human genetic modification. Earlier this year I interviewed geneticist and transhumanist, George Church. In this post I interview molecular biophysicist and transhumanist Maria Konovalenko. She is the program coordinator at the Science for Life Extension Foundation. In
Interview with transhumanism leader Maria Konovalenko Read More »
At a genetic level, just how much do each of us human beings vary from each other in our total genome sequence? The number I was taught in Genetics at some point was that the genomes of any two human beings are likely to be 99.9% identical. So only about 1 out of 1,000 bp
How much human genetic variability is there really? Read More »
CIRM has reinvented itself in a new form, CIRM 2.0, under the leadership of its new President Randy Mills. CIRM is almost like a stem cell that has changed into another new kind of stem cell. Us scientists could see the change coming in the “programming” at CIRM in terms of how it was operating as
CIRM 2.0 starts off with a bang Read More »
Heritable human genetic modification has been the topic of the year so far, but another trend is edgy and interesting: non-heritable, but cutting edge forms of human modification that in some ways fall into the class of biohacking. Biohackers are into do-it-yourself (DIY) forms of biology including self-modification. Sure, people have been modifying themselves for
DIY human ‘upgrades’ via biohacking Read More »
Later this May, I will attend and participate in Biotechnology and the Ethical Imagination (BEINGS 2015). This is an exciting and experimental summit that will focus on advances in cellular biotechnology – including both stem cell science and synthetic biology. The meeting is premised on the idea that the implications of increasing biotechnology power are
Biotechnology & the Ethical Imagination – A Preview of BEINGS summit Read More »