What’s the most amazing, weird, funny, bad, good thing that has happened to you in the lab? Here’s one from me. One day as a graduate student I was finishing up a long weekend of work and was ready to go home. No one else was around in our lab or even in the building […]
A funny thing happened on the way to the incubator: life in the lab Read More »
CIRM announced two sets of awards today that both should make major impact including its first clinical trial via Geron and $38 million for 27 basic biology studies. First Clinical Trial. Today CIRM awarded $25 million to support Geron’s FDA-approved clinical trial for spinal cord injury. This is CIRM’s first award to a for-profit company
CIRM funds $25 million for Geron trial, $38 million for basic biology Read More »
The California Public Safety Committee today passed AB 190 and in so doing has funded the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act! The action will provide up to $11 million a year in funding for spinal cord injury research. This is amazing news and is the result of a lot of hard work by
Roman Reed Act is funded! A great day for spinal cord injury research! Read More »
Now and then we will revisit some of our most popular posts and/or posts with the most comments. One of the best: The Monster Tumor: What is a teratoma really? You can go to the link above to read the original post and comments but I’ve pasted the post itself below. In stem cell research
Greatest hits: What is a teratoma? Read More »
For many of us in the biomedical research field, we have always wanted to be a professor and run our own research lab even if it meant the gauntlet of the dreaded academic job search. For some it is fair to say that that goal is really a passion, a dream. However, to achieve
Advice for the academic job search Read More »
The tragic 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis that hit Japan a few weeks ago are having lasting consequences not only for Japan, but also for the world via radiation. One area of particular concern is the radiation that has leaked and is continuing to leak from the damaged nuclear reactors. At this point, the radiation
A reality check on the radiation spreading across the globe Read More »
What is Contagious cancer? Can one creature directly give another creature cancer? It appears so in dogs and that cancer is highly contagious. Contagious cancer When we think about transplants of cells, we think about hospitals and high-tech equipment used to give patients stem cells or other types of cells to help treat them for
Contagious cancer: the allograft your dog doesn’t want Read More »
CIRM announced today that it had appointed Ellen Feigal, M.D., to be its first VP for Research Development. Dr. Feigal will begin the job on Jan. 31. Dr. Feigal is a graduate of UC Davis Med School (where I am writing this from; go UC Davis SOM!) and is currently Executive Medical Director for Global
CIRM Appoints Ellen Feigal, UC Davis Grad and Executive Med Director of Amgen as VP Read More »
There is a kind of invisible cultural wall between patients such as cancer patients and biomedical scientists like me, but this wall does not have to exist and indeed it is a negative wall as patients, scientists, doctors, agencies, and advocates can achieve far more together than apart. But the wall is surprisingly strong. Last
My Cancer: how I became an advocate too Read More »
The FDA has given Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) the go ahead to begin their clinical trial using retinal progenitor cells derived from hESC by clearing the company’s IND application, bringing hope to those with vision loss and even blindness. The trial will be a combined Phase I/II to treat Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy and has huge