Search Results for: cancer

Review of the new Zaret Cell paper on Myc & OSK in cellular reprogramming

February 1, 2021 / By

There’s a new paper out this week in Cell from the Zaret lab that is very exciting. In this manuscript, Facilitators and Impediments of the Pluripotency Reprogramming Factors’ Initial Engagement with the Genome, Zaret’s team explores how Myc and Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 (OSK) behave at the genomic level during cellular reprogramming. What are the most …

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Surprising human genomic mosaicism means not all your cells have the same DNA

February 1, 2021 / By / 2 Comments

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, …

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Eight simple reasons not to get an unlicensed stem cell treatment: reason 1 is lost health insurance

February 1, 2021 / By / 12 Comments

Patients ask me all the time about stem cell treatments. Some are curious. Some have already had treatments. Others are very seriously considering a treatment, but haven’t done so yet. Some are open-minded. Some are not. Some are angry with me for my track record of criticizing for-profit, unlicensed clinics offering stem cell treatments. In …

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Disease Focus Series

Cancer Stem Cells: a new target Disease Focus Series: Cancer Disease Focus Series: HIV/AIDS Disease Focus Series: Spinal Cord InjuryDisease Focus Series: Osteoarthritis research moving forward Disease Focus Series: Parkinson’s Disease and promising new pre-clinical results from iPS cells Disease Focus Series: a big week of exciting progress on Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease Disease Focus …

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Text mining journal Stem Cells: intriguing comparison to Cell Stem Cell

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment

I recently did a text mining of all the article titles for Cell Stem Cell for 2012. The results were very insightful (expressed in a beautiful word cloud) for the journal and what are the top areas of focus of authors publishing there. I just did the same analysis for the journal Stem Cells and …

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Text mining Cell Stem Cell: surprising insights into the journal

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment

Cell Stem Cell was the winner of my 2011 best stem cell journal award (see 2011 awards here, 2012 awards will be announced in early January). As I’ve “complained” in the past, the only thing I wish would be different is they’d publish even more articles per issue or per month! But what exactly does Cell …

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Truly frightening questions for stem cell field on Halloween

February 1, 2021 / By / 2 Comments

The Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa is going on in my former hometown of La Jolla, Ca on Halloween. I wish I could have been there, but I’m too swamped with a lot of stuff right now including teaching. If I was there, I’d be asking questions including, I hope, tough ones. Here are …

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A tribute to Nobel Laureate E. Donnall Thomas, a true stem cell pioneer

February 1, 2021 / By

I was fortunate enough to do my postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (aka “The Hutch”) in Seattle. I was a postdoc for more years than I’d like to admit, but it was a wonderful experience. The Hutch is the kind of place where you can imagine making the impossible become possible …

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Dedifferentiation of neurons & astrocytes into glioma forming cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments

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 …

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Are iPS cells being rushed to the clinic or has their time come?

February 1, 2021 / By / 2 Comments

The iPS cell field has run fast and furious over the past 6 years reaching a big milestone surprisingly quickly on Monday with Shinya Yamanaka winning the Nobel Prize. But is  the field going too fast? In August I argued that iPS cells are not quite ready for primetime (i.e. clinical trial studies). Now in …

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