It is nice to be back home, but I really enjoyed the World Stem Cell Summit. It was an energizing, inspiring meeting. There was a huge amount of information presented including new ideas and challenges to the existing paradigms. I’ve condensed it down for you. Below I list and briefly discuss what I thought were …
7 key take home action items from the World Stem Cell Summit 2011 Read More »
As some of you know, I had prostate cancer in 2009 and by the looks of the pathology report, it seemed like a bad one. Part of my own unique experience of being a cancer patient is that I also happen to be a cancer biologist. You might think this would be helpful, but really …
What cancer has taught me 584 days into my battle Read More »
What will we define as a success for any given stem cell biotech? In academia, even if we do pre-clinical, translational kind of biomedical sciences, we still do not often think about what it takes to succeed in industry. Even if we very much want our research to make a difference for patients, do we …
What is a survivor? Dan Zenka, Senior VP of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, recently pondered this question in an excellent post on his blog. The post has also drawn more than 50 comments, which I found very interesting based on the range of opinions and different perspectives. The comments are about prostate cancer, but could …
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkSaAhbceBk How we choose or heroes, our Supermen and Superwomen, says a lot about who we are. There’s a scene (above) in one of the Superman movies, starring Christopher Reeve, where Lex Luther puts a Kryptonite necklace on Superman. Superman is powerless around Kryptonite and collapses to the ground. I always remember that scene because …
When I was an eight-year-old kid, my older brother Dave was taking karate. I thought it was very cool. One day he came home from karate class and I asked him what they did that day. He said they were “learning to fall”. At the time I thought that was the dumbest thing I had …
Each year brings more evidence that what causes many cancers is a case of biological betrayal on the part of stem cells via cancer stem cells. I have blogged before about the potential for stem cell-based regenerative medicine therapies to aid cancer patients. I have also written before about my own experiences as a cancer …
There is a kind of invisible cultural wall between patients such as cancer patients and biomedical scientists like me, but this wall does not have to exist and indeed it is a negative wall as patients, scientists, doctors, agencies, and advocates can achieve far more together than apart. But the wall is surprisingly strong. Last …
If IPS cells are not ready for prime time, it is probably due to these three critical challenges for these amazing cells. TUMORIGENICITY Those of us who work with IPS cells are very excited about their potential for use in regenerative medicine therapies. One serious hurdle we have talked about in the past is tumorigenicity. …
Not ready for prime time: the three critical challenges for IPS cells Read More »
Cancer is a class of diseases that are intimately linked to stem cells. In fact, I would go so far as to call some types of cancer cells and stem cells, cousins. This concept, of a tight relationship between stem and cancer cells, is under intense investigation but at the same time it is something …