What can go wrong with unapproved stem cell clinic offerings? The answer including from presentations at the FDA today turns out to be very serious, negative results right here in the U.S. Thomas Albini, MD gave a talk entitled, “Severe Visual Loss After Intravitreal Injection of Autologous Adipose Tissue-derived Stem Cells for Age-related Macular Degeneration”. […]
Negative stem cell clinic outcomes include 3 blinded women Read More »
Has it really been 10 years since induced pluripotent stem cells (aka IPS cells or IPSC) came onto the scene in the stem cell field? Yes, it was a decade ago that now Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka (山中伸弥) published that seminal Cell paper on reprogramming to make mouse IPS cells and then human IPS cells
Yamanaka’s baby turns 10: ten IPS cell hot button bullet points Read More »
Paolo Bianco reportedly has died at age 60. This is terribly sad news and a huge loss for the stem cell community. Paolo made great contributions both in the science of stem cells itself and also in the area of advocating for responsible science. It is challenging to do both and he did it incredibly
Stem cell field in mourning: Paolo Bianco dies at 60 Read More »
Many of this blog’s readers ask about my own lab’s research: what is the focus of the work in the Knoepfler Lab? You can go check out our lab website, but I thought it might be time again to blog about what we are all about as a lab and what we have been up
Knoepfler Lab 2015: Our mission and research Read More »
In my continuing series of conversations with thought leaders related to heritable human modification, today’s post is an interview with Natasha Vita-More, a pioneer in the transhumanism movement and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Humanity+ (H+), the global transhumanist organization. Where do you see transhumanism today? Has it changed over the years? What
Global transhumanism leader Natasha Vita-More on human germline modification Read More »
The stem cell biotech Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) reported new, positive data in a paper in Lancet from their clinical trials using retinal pigmented epithelial cells (RPEs) made from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) for treatment of different forms of macular degeneration (MD). The paper was entitled “Human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium in patients with age-related
Advanced Cell Technology pub: Trial for Macular Degeneration Read More »
This post is a tribute to the late Dr. Yoshiki Sasai (笹井芳樹). If you would like your name added to this tribute please let me know. You are also welcome to add your own tributes in the comments. In an era when the emerging field of regenerative medicine is just beginning to take wing, we
Stem Cell Community Tribute to Yoshiki Sasai (笹井芳樹) Read More »
Duane Roth, the Vice-Chair of the California Stem Cell Agency CIRM and the leader of CONNECT, an organization promoting entrepreneurship in the San Diego area, died yesterday. Roth had been in a serious solo cycling accident on July 21. Roth had a long, successful career in biotech including having founded Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. He was
Tribute to CIRM Vice-Chair, Duane Roth Read More »
UPDATE: Unfortunately the Betatrophin paper discussed here originally back in 2013 has now largely been proven to have come to incorrect conclusions (for more read this). Today Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) reported the discovery, in a paper in Cell by Harvard Professor Doug Melton, of a powerful new hormone called Betatrophin that can stimulate
Doug Melton Betatrophin Discovery Points to Future Diabetes Treatment? Read More »
A relatively newly recognized, important player in the stem cell field is a molecule called histone H3.3. Histones are key components of chromatin with integral roles in regulating almost all aspects of cell behavior through orchestrating functions such as transcription and chromosome segregation. Histone H3.3 knockout My lab has just (April 9) published new studies
Histone H3.3: giving cells epigenetic flexibility Read More »