I love paradoxes. The great artist M.C. Escher was famous for his paradoxical drawings such as the one above. Paradoxes make people think in a whole new way about something they thought they understood. The stem cell field is full of paradoxes. Below I list my favorite ones. Some of these resonate with stem cell […]
Intriguing stem cell paradoxes: from Pepsi to Pluripotency Read More »
Last year around this time I presented my first stem cell awards of the year, in that case for 2010. You can see whom I thought deserved awards here. Now it is time for our 2011 stem cell awards. These awards reflect my opinions and those not mentioned will hopefully forgive me as there is
Stem Cell Awards for 2011 Read More »
What is Myc? Often when we dig a little into the science of stem cells, people get turned off by all the strange names of molecules and jargon. However, whether you are a scientist, patient, investor, reporter, etc. there are some aspects of stem cell science that are ‘musts’ to know about. For example, you
Want to understand stem cells? Then you have to know Myc Read More »
Periodically we do updates on the iPS cell field and now seems like a good time. Where do things stand? Here’s my top 5 list of action items for the iPS cell field in the coming year. 5.) Methods on the brain. A significant fraction, some would argue too high a fraction, of iPS cell papers
Top 5 iPS cell action items Read More »
Periodically we do updates on the iPS cell field and now seems like a good time. Where do things stand? Here’s my top 5 list of action items for the iPS cell field in the coming year. 5.) Methods on the brain. A significant fraction, some would argue too high a fraction, of iPS cell
Key iPS cell action items Read More »
We’ve all been closely following Geron and its work on ES cells. This morning there was a fantastic session here at the ASGCT meeting in Seattle on Clinical Trials on Stem Cells. Talk by Geron One of the speakers was Geron VP, Jane Lebkoswki, PhD: Development of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Treatment of
Stem Cell Clinical Trials Part I: Geron VP Lebkoswki speaking today in Seattle Read More »
This past week was a wacky and wild one for the stem cell field. All kinds of crazy things happened all in one week. What does it all mean? Stem cells the new steroids for sports? Reports surface this week that NY Yankees pitcher Bartolo Colon, had received a non-FDA approved stem cell treatment for
A crazy week for stem cells: what the heck does it all mean? Read More »
Today is Friday the 13th, which is supposed to be bad luck, and it seems to be a bad luck day for iPS cells. A paper came out today in Nature that will be highly upsetting for anyone hoping that iPS cells can follow a fairly direct path to the clinic. The paper from Yang
Friday the 13th for iPS cells Read More »
Since Yamanaka’s discovery of iPS cells first in mouse and then in human cells 5 years ago, both made using viral transduction, a host of new methods to make iPS cells have been reported. These methods are quite diverse, ranging from transposons, to recombinant proteins, to plasmids, and to RNA. Often times these new approaches
Why miRNA iPS cells might be the ticket: an A+ paper Read More »
There are a lot of myths in the stem cell field, some even embraced by some stem cell scientists such as the notion that teratoma are always benign. But when we start talking about translating stem cell technology into the clinic, to the bedside, it is especially important to cast aside our myths, no
Myth of Perfect Stem Cell: meaning for ACT, Geron and field Read More »