It’s been somewhat of a helter-skelter time for the new technology often referred to as 3-person IVF or mitochondrial transfer as the UK considers whether to legalize this experimental technology for use in humans. I believe that this technology is not ready now for use in humans and for more background on why as well …
Advances in therapeutic cloning reported in the past year have been very exciting as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be used to produce very powerful human embryonic stem cells (ESC). These new cells are called NT-ESCs for short. Neither embryos nor reprogramming factors are needed to produce human NT-ESCs. See here, here and here for discussions of the pioneering papers reporting creation of …
Future of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer to make ES Cells Read More »
With one week left to vote to pick the top 12 finalists for the Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award, we have more than 2,800 votes in so far. From the top 12 vote-getters, I will choose the winner. This is the third year of this award. I self-fund this award out of …
Stem Cell Person of the Year Award 2014 Voting: Who Will Be Finalists? Read More »
Nominations have closed and we have more than two dozen nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014. It’s an exciting, diverse group including some news faces as well as nominees from years past as well. Happy Stem Cell Day! You can now vote for your choice for the top finalists in the poll …
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award: Vote To Choose 12 Finalists Read More »
An FDA committee began a meeting yesterday that continues today to consider permitting new assisted reproduction-based “3-parent” technology that could address mitochondrial disorders, a serious human health problem. The technology also raises complex health issues of its own and invokes ethical questions. The goal of the FDA meeting is articulated this way: “the committee will …
Why the FDA should not green-light 3-parent reproduction Read More »
What’s the latest surprise on the STAP stem cell front? There have been many unexpected turn along the way in the past few weeks of the rollercoaster ride the stem cell field is on related to STAP stem cells, the super powerful stem cells reportedly (in two papers in Nature) made “simply” by exposing cells …
Nature Post-Pub Examination of Its Own STAP Stem Cell Papers Breaks New Ground Read More »
If you’ve been paying attention to the stem cell world, you’ll remember Woo Suk Hwang, who nearly derailed the future of stem cell research by very publically proclaiming that he had made human embryonic stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). No, this has nothing to do with Shoukhrat Mitalipov’s report of successful generation …
Jeanne Loring on Woo Suk Hwang Approved Patent of SCNT ESCs Read More »
There have been many interesting developments in stem cells in 2013, but to me the biggest event by far was the first ever successful somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)-based human therapeutic cloning. This approach generated apparently genetically normal human embryonic stem cells (hESC), an astonishing accomplishment. There are two kinds of human cloning: therapeutic and reproductive. …
Stem cell story of the year: human therapeutic cloning Read More »
The World Stem Cell Summit in San Diego was a great meeting this past week. It was my 3rd straight Summit and the best of all. It’s a unique mix of science, medicine, and policy that links together key players from every corner of the field. I talked stem cells one-on-one or in small groups …
I recently did a poll asking readers of my blog to vote on the iPS cell paper of the year for 2013. The vote kind of seesawed at the beginning, but in the end with 100 votes cast the paper by the Hannah lab on near-perfect iPS cell production won out (see votes at left). …
Hannah near-perfect reprogramming voted as iPS cell paper of 2013 Read More »