An interesting paper just came out in PNAS reporting the apparent presence of a pluripotent stem cell population in the adult breast. The paper is Roy, et al. and is from Thea Tlsty’s outstanding lab at UCSF. I have read the paper and it seems very solid technically to me. The finding has stimulated some …
The Korean-based stem cell biotech, RNL Bio, which also does business in the U.S. as RNL Bio and Human Biostar Inc, reportedly (seems to be a press release, PR) has filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the Korean FDA (KFDA). The purpose of the application is to test the efficacy of autologous adult stem cells …
Just how safe are stem cell transplants? Is an autologous stem cell transplant always safe? Is it really true, as one stem cell transplant doc once said of autologous stem cell treatments, that “the worst thing that could happen is the treatment won’t work”? Are adult stem cell treatments by definition safe? The reality is …
Some 2012 papers that raise serious safety concerns about adult stem cell treatments Read More »
I’m doing this series called “The Elephant in the Lab” where I discuss controversial or taboo laboratory topics that people are usually too afraid to publicly discuss. I started with iPS cells (for a description and definition of iPS cells go here) and now have updated this post for 2013 because the field is changing rapidly. iPS …
Every now and then a paper on stem cells lands many international headlines and also captures people’s imaginations. This seems to be the case for the recent urine stem cell paper from a team in China, which has made huge headlines. In addition to mainstream media, the paper was covered in Wired here and also by one …
Why did urine stem cell paper create global media sensation? Read More »
The field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has really shaken up science over the last half dozen years reversing our notion that differentiated cells are stuck in that fate, when in reality they are plastic and can “turn back the clock” to become embryonic stem cell-like cells. Now we have an iPSC paper in Nature, …
Surprising human genomic mosaicism means not all your cells have the same DNA Read More »
A team from the Salk Institute in La Jolla led by Inder Verma has reported dedifferentiation in a paper in Science some important findings that I believe make their paper in the top 10 as a candidate for paper of the year. The paper, entitled “Dedifferentiation of Neurons and Astrocytes by Oncogenes Can Induce Gliomas …
Dedifferentiation of neurons & astrocytes into glioma forming cells Read More »
In a few hours I’m going to submit my current R01 proposal to my institutional grants office, which will then submit it to NIH as is required by NIH. I’m tired. My brain is tired. I have a cold. I’ve read the grant a hundred times at least. I’ve had colleagues read it. I’ve taken …
My R01 is due in a few hours, what’s on my mind besides ice cream? Read More »
Top stem cell meetings and conferences. If you want me to post your meeting, email me or post a comment (I’ll delete the comment and add the meeting to the main page). Meetings from 2012 can be found here. My listing of these meetings is not an endorsement of them, but is provided for informational …
This morning the Internet here at UC Davis Medical Center was on and off down for a couple hours. You’d think we had suffered a complete electronic catastrophe of the kind on the new sci-fi show on NBC, Revolution by JJ Abrams, where nothing electronic works even if it is battery powered. Here it was …