I’ve already talked with science writer Ed Yong about the new Nature iPS cell paper Araki, et al. (you can read Ed’s well-written piece here and you can another one on it by another one of my favorite writers, Monya Baker here), which suggests that iPS cells don’t trigger much in the way of an immune […]
Some thoughts on the Araki Nature iPS cell paper: an advance, but a few key caveats Read More »
I’m doing a poll on the strangest stem cell-related event of the year in 2012. The results are in and people seem to think all the candidate strange events were indeed odd, but the strangest of all was deemed the Japanese scientist Moriguchi faking that he had done iPS cell transplants on humans, a story
Strangest stem cell event of 2012: Moriguchi’s fake iPS cell transplants Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) is well into clinical trials for macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness) using human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based retinal pigmented epithelial cells (RPE). To date, the trials suggest the products are safe. Efficacy? We don’t know. I am cautiously hopeful, but it is frustrating to know that most clinical trials
One of the big issues related to using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is cost. To make iPS cells from each patient for subsequent stem cell-based treatment would cost a fortune, by some estimates $200,000 or more per patient if done one-by-one. It could easily end up not being covered by insurances companies and Medicare,
Yamanaka on making iPS cells from each patient: ‘in reality, we cannot do that’ Read More »
I love collaborative science. I believe it advances science faster. An example? My lab recently collaborated with another lab here at UC Davis of Dr. Oliver Fiehn, a metabolomics guru. Our paper on this just came out in PLOS ONE here. Admittedly, we got scooped by another lab that published the first ever metabolomics paper
New paper on iPS cell metabolomics: striking, yet incomplete metabolic reprogramming Read More »
Hisashi Moriguchi. He is arguably at the center of one of the biggest science scandals of 2012. This is the guy who lied about doing iPS cell transplants into human patients. He also lied about being affiliated with Harvard & its primary teaching hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for many years after he left there. He
Harvard spokesman: MGH withdrawing puzzling Moriguchi 2010 iPS cell patent application Read More »
Hisashi Moriguchi, the fellow who made up the story of having transplanted iPS cells into human patients and then later admitted that he had lied, has been fired by the University of Tokyo according to a statement (here in Japanese) from the university. An admittedly fairly weak translation to English by Google is the following:
iPS cell transplant fraud Moriguchi fired by University of Tokyo Read More »
I’m getting some heat from some stem cell folks who think I should not have blogged about the Moriguchi iPS cell transplant case. Their argument seems to be it would have been preferable to either (A) not blog about the story at all or only minimally so fewer people would know about it or (B)
Responding to critics of blogging the Moriguchi iPS cell story Read More »
How could the biggest newspaper in Japan, Yomiuri, get so badly tricked without even trying to verify facts prior to splashing it across their front page? A commenter on this blog named Mulboyne says that competing newspaper Mainichi was offered the Moriguchi story but solid investigative reporting made them decline it. Here’s the quote: “The
How did Japan’s top newspaper get tricked about iPS cells by Moriguchi? Read More »
Hisashi Moriguchi, who claimed to have transplanted iPS cells into six human patients has now admitted that he lied about five of them according to a new Nature piece by excellent science writer David Cyranoski, on the strange case citing several Japanese newspaper articles as sources. Quoted from a press conference yesterday in the Nature
iPS cell fraud Moriguchi confesses to lying about almost, but not quite everything Read More »