I have in the past posted advice to new faculty and also top 10 advice list for the academic job hunt, but today I wanted to specifically talk about mentoring. Also, stay tuned for a special post later this week with an autobiographical section from Irv Weissman on his early career and who his key […]
How to find and be a good mentor? Read More »
The Susan G. Komen Foundation is an awesome organization. It has raised nearly $2 billion dollars in less than 2 decades for breast cancer research. It also has a variety of educational programs. This is an organization that has likely saved hundreds of women’s lives and I think will save thousands of lives through its
Trying to understand the Catholic ban on the Komen Charity Read More »
The Republican Party is really the “kill them all and let God sort them out” kind of party. Their latest craziness in the arena of science is toying with the notion of shutting down the NIH entirely or at least the ability of NIH to issue any new grants. So perhaps their new mantra is
Kill them all and let God sort them out: what happens if the Republicans shut down NIH? Read More »
A year ago I did a post on scientific peer review and the dreaded Dr. No, but have things gotten any better? No. From everyone I have talked to, the answer would seem to be quite the contrary–things continue to move in the wrong direction. If you are not a scientist, but care about stem cell
I Still Hate Your Paper: Dr. No and the Editors that are ruining Peer Review 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 »
Podcast for Week of July 5 Topics –Stem Cell Tourism in the U.S. –CIRM –Article in the Hill by stem cell opponent –Stem cell hype on aging Podcast for Week of July 11 Topics: –two papers on stem cell-based tissue engineering and one on stem cell treatments for heart disease, –the Republican candidates for
The CIRM Board is meeting today and will decide on its future Chair via an election. There are two candidates, Jonathan Thomas (nominated by Bill Lockyer, the California state treasurer) and Frank Litvack, nominated by state controller, John Chang. Thomas is described as a Bond financier, while Litvack is an L.A. cardiologist and businessman with
And the new leader of CIRM is… Read More »
There have been a lot of recent headlines about a report that it might be possible to grow human organs in pigs. Someone even proposed the crazy idea of using human iPS cells to make chimeric human/swing animals that contain certain human organs, which could then be harvested. To say this is a bad idea
Growing organs for transplants in swine: a pig in a poke? Read More »
What’s going on at ISSCR? A lot of cool stuff based on today’s Tweets from people attending. Tweeters are in ( ). Andras Nagy is the iPS cell Renaissance man! This morning at #ISSCR2011, talks by Shinya Yamanaka and Andras Nagy both featured Glis1, an egg-specific TF that promotes reprogramming. (the_Node) #ISSCR2011 Jaenisch:changing the order of
Top News from ISSCR today: exciting stuff! Read More »
Human cloning is coming. Maybe not to a Walmart near you, but it is coming. And by human cloning, I mean reproductive cloning, not therapeutic cloning which is a totally different cup of tea. The cloning I’m talking about is where you duplicate a human being. Despite efforts to prevent human cloning, such as a
Justin Beiber or Einstein or you? Who gets cloned first? Read More »