Ideas are the foundation of stem cell research, but funding makes those ideas a reality. We talk a lot about governmental funding of stem cell research through CIRM and NIH. The funding from these agencies is essential and will undoubtedly lead to new treatments and cures, possibly for millions of patients. But there is another …
Why invest in stem cells? Progress, Patients, and Patents Read More »
Who’s who in the iPS cell field? In this post, I examine the people, journals, places, funding agencies, and companies that are the leaders in the iPS cell field. I start with publishing. Last year we did a post on publishing trends in the iPS cell field. It suggested that the iPS cell field was exploding …
Who’s who in iPS cells: scientists, journals, funding agencies, countries, and biotechs Read More »
Stem Cell Tools CIRM CIRM TV CSHL Expert Chats on Stem Cells (very cool) Stem cell wiki European Stem Cell Portal Stem cells NIH Stem Cell NY Times article collection ISSCR Cell Stem Cell — the journal Stem Cells — the journal Stem cell video Stem Cell Chromatin info Recommended Stem Cell Blogs …
Stem cell research is a truly global endeavor. How will America’s role evolve in this field and other areas of biomedical research? Because of politic, legal, and budgetary reasons, there are growing concerns that the U.S. may find itself 2nd rate for stem cell research and perhaps also for other fields of science as well. …
How are things looking for the stem cell field for Spring 2011? Issue One. Getting to the clinic. At this point, Geron and ACT have their FDA-approved clinical trials underway using derivatives of human embryonic stem cells. As expected no news has leaked out on how things are going and it may well be Fall …
What’s going on these days with biotech companies working on stem cell-based products? Geron’s and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT)’s FDA-approved trials presumably continue. As expected, no news yet. It’s too soon. Two important questions regarding both these companies are (1) did they apply for CIRM funding and (2) if so, how did the review process …
Stem cell biotech updates: Geron, ACT, Neuralstem, Pfizer Read More »
It’s been more than 4 years since Shinya Yamanaka published the remarkable finding that his lab could transform or “reprogram” regular cells called fibroblasts into a very unique state that was quite similar to that of embryonic stem cells (ESC). Yamanaka called these new cells “iPS cells” for induced pluripotent stem cells. Since that time, …
My post yesterday on the problems with the current system of stem cell funding generated a lot of interest from readers– more than a dozen left comments. Many of the comments were insightful even if readers disagreed on certain points. David Jensen also posted on an interesting piece on this issue in response to our …
Trends in Stem Cell Research Funding: where do we go from here? Read More »
In this post I give my most interesting predictions about events in the stem cell field in 2011. Update: I’ve continuing doing predictions every year all the way through 2020 and intend to continue. See my 2012-2020 predictions here. Appeals court rules in favor of federally funded hESC research. This is more of a hope …
As the year comes to a close this week, it is a good time to look back on 2010 and consider the major events in the stem cell field and give out awards. Stem Cell Event of the Year. I would give this award as a dual prize to Geron and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) …