This morning on day two of the World Stem Cell Summit here in Pasadena, Rudy Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute gave the scientific keynote address. It was a fabulous talk. Jaenisch, accurately described by Bernie Siegel as a true giant of the stem cell field, outlined the key issues facing the field of highly pluripotent …
Jaenisch’s 5 key action items for the ES and iPS cell field Read More »
Texas Governor and GOP presidential nominee wannabe, Rick Perry, seems to have stepped in it again when it comes to stem cells. It seems he put the cart before the horse on a grand scale, getting what appears to be an unlawful treatment and only now pleading for it to be legalized after the fact …
Rick Perry’s first stem cell rodeo: it ain’t pretty Read More »
Some of the smartest people I have ever met in my life were scientists. But some of these same people made the dumbest mistakes I have ever seen in my life. Why? Their raw brainpower and knowledge of science is amazing, but they seemed to lack common sense and what I would call “science street …
Science street smarts: how to succeed in science in the real world Read More »
Another sports stars has been publicly “outed” as having received a non-FDA approved stem cell therapy in a foreign country. First, the big news earlier this year in June was that NY Yankees Pitcher Bartolo Colon had received a stem cell treatment. Then we all heard that Texas Governor and, at the moment, leading GOP …
Sports stars, Rick Perry, stem cells: how many more people will die? Read More »
As a stem cell scientist I hear all the time about how the pipeline from the lab to the clinic is incredibly slow and terribly inefficient. Meanwhile millions of people have conditions that the current state-of-the-art medicine cannot effectively treat. Somehow we need to make a fundamental change to improve this process. I think one …
Big tent team science: new ideas about clinical trials Read More »
I have found evidence of stem cells on Mars! Actually, I haven’t, but what if I took pictures of Martian soil with my trusty microscope and claimed that certain formations were fossilized stem cells…and somehow I published that sexy paper? And what if I really believed it were true, but alas I was wrong? What …
Stem Cells On Mars: Pimping Your Paper And Sexy Science Read More »
I’m still standing. More than two months ago I posted about how I was switching to a standing work station. I was just a few weeks into it and at that point it was going pretty well. However, my feet were hurting at the end of the day and I was not really sure …
My standing work station at 10 weeks: the biggest surprise Read More »
We have reached a watershed moment. The FBI has gotten very interested in stem cells. In my opinion we are on the cusp of a flood of arrests by the FBI of folks selling illegal stem cell treatments. Selling non-approved FDA stem cell treatments, particular those involving transport of the stem cells across state …
FBI seems poised for flood of arrests for stem cell tourism Read More »
It has been a week to think about mentors and I posted somewhat autobiographically on how to find and be a good mentor a few days ago. Also along these lines, I asked one of the great mentors of all time, Irv Weissman, about his early career and who were the mentors that made the …
With the bewildering amount of news about stem cells, how do we tell the difference between hype and hope? Although the words “hype” and “hope” only differ by one letter, sometimes it is hard to tell them apart in real life, but of course they are very different things. So how do we know when …