Search Results for: skin stem cells

Public polling on human gene editing, moratorium

Hart-Poll

Many of us scientists, ethicists, and legal scholars are working on educational outreach to the public on the potential use of gene editing technologies like CRISPR to genetically modify human beings, but clearly there’s a long way to go and much more to do on this front. By the way, you may find this new …

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Interview with Bioheart CSO, Kristin Comella including on FDA

Kristin-Comella1

I invited the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Bioheart, Kristin Comella, to do an interview after hearing some buzz that this could be a critical time for the company and that it might have been recently visited by the FDA. Note that Comella not just Bioheart CSO, but also the primary instructor for physician training in stem …

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Risks for Healthy PBSC Donors? One Family’s Powerful Experience

stem cell donor, where do stem cells come from?

By Jane Langille A few weeks ago, I wrote to Dr. Paul Knoepfler after reading his book Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide because I was intrigued by his stem cell theory of aging. I wondered if his theory might mean that someone who mobilized and donated hematopoietic cells might be shortening their own lifetime supply. After …

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Are babies from same-sex couples possible?

IPS-cell-cloning

A question that has come up with advances in stem cell technology: could same-sex couples have their own biological children? Since Shinya Yamanaka reprogrammed first mouse and then human ordinary cells into powerful pluripotent stem cells, termed induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, back in 2006-2007 many new research avenues have opened up. The impossible suddenly …

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Perspectives on final RIKEN report on STAP cell scandal & what comes next

STAP-cells-FIgure

The Japanese research institute RIKEN has come full circle in a way on the STAP cell scandal. Note that the STAP papers included not only authors from RIKEN, but also from Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. With its final report released today (also a powerpoint of images were released including the one showing a …

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Landmark: patient receives first ever iPS cell based transplant

Masayo-Takahashi-150x150

In a major first for the stem cell and regenerative medicine fields, a patient in Japan today received a pioneering transplant of a retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) sheet made from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, also known by the acronym IPSC. This is the first ever iPS cell-based transplant into a human. The patient is …

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Could Nature’s 2-year torrent of paper retractions be a good thing?

Nature

The last two years at Nature Magazine have seen a surprising wave of paper retractions. In 2013 and now just so far in 2014, Nature has retracted a total of 14 papers. How unusual is that? Historically, Nature retracts relatively few papers, perhaps just under two per year on average. What the heck has been going on in 2013-2014? Let’s break it …

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Blog readers investigate BioGatekeeper, the Yamanaka patent challenger

Nobel-Lawsuit

Who is trying, via the name BioGatekeeper, Inc., to nullify Yamanaka’s patent on cellular reprogramming to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells? The readers of this blog never cease to amaze me. What an informed, energetic, bright group. Within just days they may have collectively shed some light on an intriguing mystery in the stem cell field surrounding the …

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Obokata OKs Retraction of Nature STAP Cell Letter, Not Article

Obokata-press-conference

Japanese news media are reporting that Haruko Obokata and other key authors have agreed to retract the Nature STAP cell letter, but not the Nature article. This is a major development and a peculiar one because to many in the  field it is the Nature STAP cell article that is the more flawed of the two Nature papers on STAP. Why would …

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RIKEN Report Is Virtual Acid Bath of Criticism for Obokata

si-Haruko

RIKEN Institute in Japan has formally announced the complete findings of its investigation into the STAP cell research,  Haruko Obokata, and Nature papers. RIKEN almost entirely blamed Obokata for the STAP mess in this report and they didn’t mince words. The RIKEN report alleged that Obokata had engaged in two instances of “research misconduct” as …

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