This morning on day two of the World Stem Cell Summit here in Pasadena, Rudy Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute gave the scientific keynote address. It was a fabulous talk. Jaenisch, accurately described by Bernie Siegel as a true giant of the stem cell field, outlined the key issues facing the field of highly pluripotent …
Jaenisch’s 5 key action items for the ES and iPS cell field Read More »
Now and then we will revisit some of our most popular posts and/or posts with the most comments. One of the best: The Monster Tumor: What is a teratoma really? You can go to the link above to read the original post and comments but I’ve pasted the post itself below. In stem cell research …
Epigenetic reprogramming is a term used in cell biology that is increasingly ending up in news stories too. Unfortunately, some folks, especially in the cellular rejuvenation and anti-aging space, are getting this term and other things confused. Just to start off, epigenetic reprogramming does not specifically mean cellular rejuvenation. The goal of today’s post is …
Defining epigenetic reprogramming, cellular reprogramming & rejuvenation Read More »
I’ve been thinking more about the steady stream of epigenetic clock research out there. How convincing is the research on such clocks? Do they tightly relate to human biological age? The related notion of turning back such hypothetical clocks to reverse aging is exciting but controversial. It doesn’t help that some are hyping all of …
Is DNA methylation destiny? Diving into new epigenetic clock research Read More »
Што се матични клетки? (Editor’s note: this is another in our series of stem cell outreach posts. This one provides key information on stem cells in Macedonian.) Што се матични клетки? Што се матични клетки? | Зошто се важни матичните клетки? | Видови на матични клетки | Што се иПМ клетки? | Иднината на терапиите …
Research on in vitro gametogenesis or IVG is jumping ahead and such work could one day lead to new infertility treatments. In vitro gametogenesis is the process of producing gametes (sperm and eggs) from stem cells. Those powerful stem cells, called iPS cells, can be made from ordinary adult cells like skin or blood cells. …
Questions on National Academies in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) meeting sponsorship Read More »
As we think about how much of a role belief should play in the hard sciences such as cell biology, a supposed cell type called VSEL or very-small embryonic stem cell-like cells comes to mind. For these guys it seems to me that the ratio of data to belief isn’t great. VSELs have nine lives. I …
The role of belief in hard science: the VSEL case Read More »
I wrote earlier this week about genome sequencing of famous dead celebrities, pointing out that the trend seems full of ethical complexities. Genome news More broadly, sequencing the genomes of non-celebrities from hundreds or thousands of years ago can be important research. A new NYT piece covers such work on the Swahili people. Such research …
Weekly reads: genome sequencing, chemical reprogramming 2.0 Read More »
Near-billionaire Bryan Johnson apparently does not like getting old and he’s trying to do something transformative about it. He and his team are experimenting in a big way. As a 55-year-old myself, I can’t blame him for wanting to fight aging in general. However, his anti-aging project includes some extreme stuff. Will some in the …
Skepticism on the Bryan Johnson anti-aging extravaganza Read More »
About ten years ago I ran across the organism called the immortal jellyfish. Luckily I didn’t get stung because it wasn’t an in-person encounter like while swimming. Rather, I came upon the idea that these guys lived forever. Someone was even selling an immortal jellyfish extract. They claimed it would reverse aging in people. That …