Parabiosis and aging When it comes to anti-aging science, creepy meets cool with “young blood” in new blood mixing studies just published. The researchers report that blood from young animals literally makes older animals younger. That striking claim is made by both of two independent teams. They published high-profile papers that just came […]
Parabiosis and young blood anti-aging in mice Read More »
We in the stem cell field should call this past week: A Nightmare on Stem Street. I can’t think of many weeks that have been worse for the stem cell field than this past one. I’m a new week is starting soon. It was a real nightmare, although I wish it was just something fictional
After nightmare stem cell week, some good news? Read More »
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! How might you celebrate? At least in part you might consider supporting St. Baldrick’s, which is a wonderful foundation that supports research on children’s cancer. Every year they have a very cool event where supporters of the organization get their heads shaved to raise money for the cancer research. In the past
How Baldness Helps Toward a Cure for Children’s Cancer Read More »
If you are like me, you’ve managed to watch at least a bit of the Olympics the last few weeks. Sometimes I squeeze in a few minutes late at night while multi-tasking writing a grant. Other folks with more time on their hands are Olympics fanatics with gold medals, ice, and snow on the brain
In cell Olympics iPS cells get gold, while STAP cells are too young to judge Read More »
In two Nature papers (here and here) published today researchers report the astounding finding of reprogramming differentiated cells back to a pluripotent or even totipotent state simply by exposing the cells to extreme environmental stress, creating cells they called STAP cells. Update: see more thoughts on STAP stem cells here. STAP cells: stressing the cell
Review of Obokata STAP cells Nature papers Read More »
Each year I make predictions for the stem cell field for the coming year. In today’s post I write about my top 10 stem cell predictions for 2014. You can see my predictions for 2013 here (see predictions for 2011 and 2012 predictions, which are kind of fun to read to see what was on the “mind” of the field
Stem Cell Predictions for 2014 Read More »
Below is an excerpt focused on Alzheimer’s Disease from my new book on stem cells. Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide, which is targeted to a broad audience of people interested in stem cells. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is one of the most devastating illnesses. It destroys the brain, which shrinks over time (see image from Wikipedia
Book Excerpt: Stem Cells for Alzheimer’s Disease–Are We There yet? Read More »
Dr. Charles Cox at the University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center at Houston is starting a new stem cell-based clinical trial for the treatment of young children with cerebral palsy (CP). There is an urgent need for the development of new treatments for CP. You can learn more about the details of this specific
Interview with Dr. Charles Cox on New Stem Cell Trial for Cerebral Palsy Read More »
I’m in the mood for something lighthearted and funny as sometimes humor is the best medicine so I’ve got a stem cell joke contest for you. The winner gets a signed copy of my book or a huge thing of cookies, your choice. The rules? Simple. The joke starts roughly as follows “Three stem cells
TGIF: Friday the 13th Stem Cell Joke Contest Read More »
A team led by Shinya Yamanaka has published a new study reporting analysis of defective induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in the journal PNAS. Part of what I liked so much about this paper is that it tackled a very real, but controversial area of stem cell research. By this I mean the reality that a
Review of New Yamanaka Paper on Defective iPS cells Read More »