The Catholic Church, particularly the Vatican, has a bit of a split personality when it comes to stem cells and other “controversial issues” such as assisted reproduction and contraception. Officially, they oppose these things, but behind the scenes most everyday ordinary Catholics support them. This divide has become all the more apparent in the last …
Vatican’s doomed stem cell meeting still haunting them Read More »
The stem cell field is truly global. However, sometimes those of us who do research and/or act as patient advocates here in the U.S. need to wake up from a bit of tunnel vision and realize that there are critical fights going on over stem cell research elsewhere in the world. These are crucially important. …
More on the Irish Stem Cell War and free access to Irish Newspaper Article Read More »
Long-time television and music personality, Dick Clark, has passed away at age 82 today. Growing up as a kid in the 1970s and 80s, I knew Dick Clark from American Bandstand and $20,000 pyramid, but more than that I knew him for how amazingly young he always looked. I was not a big fan of …
Lessons from Dick Clark about aging and stem cells Read More »
I started my series on the sins of scientists last week with a piece called “Failure to Cite”. “Failure to cite” refers to the practice whereby some scientists choose not to cite the papers of their competitors, to make their own seem more novel, or as payback to folks they consider their “enemies”. In today’s …
Seven sins of scientists part 2: paper or grant killing Read More »
Anyone getting tired of those anti-stem cell activists folks slamming Pepsi for supposedly using stem cells in their flavor research, when in reality the cells in question are not stem cells? Maybe the Pepsi-haters are too as they are now reportedly on the case of Kraft and Nestle too as well as Campbell’s, which makes …
Anti-stem cell activists target Kraft, Campbell’s and Nestle Read More »
The Komen foundation has had a rough couple weeks, huh? First, it said it would not longer provide support to Planned Parenthood under pressure from anti-choice extremists, some of whom appear to have infiltrated Komen itself. Predictably, there was a firestorm of criticism that has damaged Komen and arguably may have actually been quite helpful …
Lessons from the Komen Fiasco and Propaganda Wars Read More »
Lately I have been critical of an ultra-conservative political think tank-like foundation called the Witherspoon Institute. They have recently joined the federal lawsuit as friends of the plaintiffs suing to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The Witherspoon Council has just published a 100+ page report on stem cells in the very conservative, somewhat obscure …
Today after years of following the company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), I finally bought stock (ACTC) in it. Why? As a stem cell researcher myself working on human ES cells, iPS cells, and many other types of stem cells, I have been following ACT for years, but have never pulled the trigger to buy their stock….until …
Why I finally bought stock in Advanced Cell Technology Read More »
Last year around this time I presented my first stem cell awards of the year, in that case for 2010. You can see whom I thought deserved awards here. Now it is time for our 2011 stem cell awards. These awards reflect my opinions and those not mentioned will hopefully forgive me as there is …
Each year at this time I start thinking about what the next year will bring for the stem cell field and make predictions. This year is no different and I’ve been pondering what 2012 has in store for us. You can read my predictions for 2011 here and see how I fared. Not too bad, but overly optimistic …
Stem cell predictions for 2012: Science, CIRM, ACT, trends Read More »