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 …
Did Celltex just get an FDA warning letter? I’m not sure. We may find out tomorrow as the FDA updates their public warning letter list early in the week. What’s Celltex? Celltex is that famous stem cell company in Sugarland, Texas that gave Guv Rick Perry stem cell transplants. It was inspected by the FDA …
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a relatively common, often debilitating illness, which has a major impact on the people of the world. In the U.S. alone, COPD costs the country almost $50 billion a year not to mention untold suffering. Most of us know someone who has COPD. COPD is an umbrella term that …
Stem cells for COPD including emphysema: are we there yet? Read More »
Yesterday I just did a post on Jaenisch’s very dense, interesting Cell paper on iPS cells, but understandably it still is confusing to many people. I think I’ve come up with a helpful analogy. Imagine you are on a plane (this is your fibroblast cell) and the pilot dies. You have to fly the jumbo jet …
Jaenisch’s new Cell paper on iPS cells 2.0: a helpful, brief analogy Read More »
The iPS cell field has had a relatively quiet 2012 so far, but one recent paper has drawn particular attention in the last 10 days. I’m talking about the paper from Jaenisch’s lab on iPS cells in Cell. Quite a few people are excited, but also scratching their heads a bit as to what this …
Jaenisch’s new, complicated iPS paper in Cell: what the heck does it all mean? Read More »
Obtaining research grant funding is a critical part of science, but the process seems to be getting more challenging each year. Funding rates are decreasing. Applicant frustration is increasing and many grant applicants tell me they feel confused about the differences between funded and unfunded proposals. The largest funder of biomedical research in the U.S. …
Interview with NIGMS Director, Jeremy Berg, part 1: grant advice, meritocracy Read More »
The notion of caloric restriction (CR) as a means to prolong human life is intriguing. The basic idea of CR is that if you eat a lot less than the average person you’ll live longer. You might even live a higher quality, healthier life. But is this true? (update: see my newer post on 5 …
Caloric restriction: dieting monkeys teach human scientists? Read More »
I know. I know. Scientists are not supposed to publicly talk about the question of when life begins and about death, but these are kind of important things to talk about and think about, don’t you think? I do. So here goes…. It’s been a very intense, crazy few weeks for me and for many …
Is it worth it to do stem cell banking? When I was a kid I remember hearing about people having themselves frozen or even just their heads frozen shortly after death. The idea was to cheat mortality by preserving oneself or critical parts of oneself until some future date when scientists and doctors would have …
Cryogenics to stem cell banking: time for deposit? Read More »
What kind of laugh do you have and what kind of laugher are you? Chuckler? Giggler? Belly laugher? Quiet? Loud? Cry when you laugh? Can’t breathe when you laugh hard? Why do we laugh in the first place? There is actually a field of study of laughter called Gelotology, but despite this scientists do not really …
The science of laughing: what one’s laugh says about you, our Presidents, & Mitt Romney Read More »