Here are some stem cell reads for the weekend, ranging from media to research articles. TGIF! What are your stem cell or other science weekend reads? Let’s start with how difficult it is to make IPS cells from naked mole rats! Naked Mole Rat Cells Have a Stable Epigenome that Resists iPSC Reprogramming. It takes more than …
Weekend Stem Cell Reads: Naked mole rats, geckos, brain gel, & more Read More »
What happens following pluripotent stem cell transplants into the brain? Are human IPS and ES cells going to function similarly in this context? We recently published a new translational paper on the behavior of human pluripotent stem cells when transplanted into the adult mouse brain in collaboration with my great UC Davis colleague, Dr. Veronica Martinez-Cerdeno. …
Is there a stem cell connection between the brain and aging? Could a type of brain stem cell or the exosomes it secretes control whole body aging? A recent big Nature article from the lab of Dongcheng Cai argues an emphatic “Yes” to these questions, at least in mice. In the Zhang, et al paper, entitled …
Review of Nature paper: stem cell exosomes on the brain and aging Read More »
I was really sad when I heard about John McCain’s diagnosis with a glioblastoma, a particularly nasty type of brain tumor that we study in my lab when it shows up in children. My own battle with prostate cancer starting almost 8 years ago might have sensitized me to this news even though I’m in …
3 Ways Stem Cells Theoretically May Help John McCain Beat Brain Tumor Read More »
What’s the hardest thing we ever do with our brains on average during a lifetime? Our brains are wonderful things that some have called the most complicated structures in the known universe, but what exactly do we do with them? Do we tax them fully during our lives? The old cliché that we only use …
What is hardest thing we do with our brains in a lifetime? Read More »
I appreciate fun linguistic approaches to explaining science such as a good science metaphor and I use them myself at times, but sometimes these end up risking doing much more harm than good. The best or should I say worst example I’ve heard recently is referring to a growth factor called BDNF as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”. …
Risky science metaphor: BDNF as ‘Miracle-Gro for the brain’ Read More »
There has been much attention to the link between Zika and microcephaly. How does Zika cause microcephaly or does it even directly cause microcephaly. Has the latter been concretely proven? There are even more questions. A cool new Cell Stem Cell paper gives us some key insights. The manuscript from a team led by Guo-Li …
One of the biggest claims related to stem cells and in particular to induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC or IPS cells) of 2015 came just yesterday about growing a human fetal brain. A press release from Ohio State University reports that two of its researchers had grown a nearly full-formed human fetal brain. My initial reaction …
Healthy skepticism needed on claim of stem cell-derived human fetal brain Read More »
In what NIH describes as “outside-the-box” thinking, an MIT team led by Edward Boyden has found a way to use a diaper ingredient to transform microscopy including brain imaging. This is cool stuff. Boyden’s group found that the super-absorbent diaper compound sodium polyacrylate, can be used in a very novel way for microscopy. For any who have …
This is your brain on diapers: new mindbogglingly cool imaging trick Read More »
The idiom “you’ve got rocks in your head” means that you are stupid. What if I told you that you really do have rocks in your head and so do I. In fact we all have rocks in our head. Really. You’ve probably heard of or even had kidneystones or gallstones, but rocks in our …
Ear rocks & brain sand: there are rocks in your head Read More »