What are recent trends in Stem Cell Research Funding? My post yesterday on the problems with the current system of stem cell funding generated a lot of interest from readers– more than a dozen left comments. Many of the comments were insightful even if readers disagreed on certain points. David Jensen also posted on an […]
Trends in Stem Cell Research Funding: where do we go from here? Read More »
In this post I give my most interesting predictions about events in the stem cell field in 2011. Update: I’ve continuing doing predictions every year all the way through 2020 and intend to continue. See my 2012-2020 predictions here. Appeals court rules in favor of federally funded hESC research. This is more of a hope
Predictions for Stem Cells in 2011 Read More »
It has been a rollercoaster few months between the anti-hESC court cases as well as Geron and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) receiving the OK from the FDA to proceed with initial clinical trials of stem cell treatments. It’s OK to be excited about the clinical trials and I for one am, but we have to
Challenges translating stem cell treatments to patients Read More »
The trouble with the risk of teratoma presents a stem cell paradox. Stem cells possess two traits lacking in other cells: self-renewal and pluripotency. This duo of defining functions is key to the ability of stem cells to be used to treat patients via regenerative medicine. A paradox exists because while self-renewal and pluripotency are both
The trouble with teratoma: a stem cell paradox Read More »
One question I am frequently asked by readers and colleagues is “what other stem cell blogs or bloggers can you recommend that are written by a stem cell scientist and updated on a regular basis?” The simple but surprising answer: there are none. It’s lonely out here in cyberspace! (2020 update: The good news today
How many scientist bloggers does it take to change a light bulb? Read More »
CIRM Board Member, Jeff Sheehy, has a wonderful piece in Nature Medicine on why patient advocates play a critical role in decision making on research priorities (hat tip to Amy Adams who first blogged on Sheehy’s piece). Patient advocates bring a unique and valuable perspective to the table. Their role in guiding CIRM research funding
Why scientists must be advocates too: Jeff Sheehy Read More »
2020 update: This post from almost 10 years ago on the HIV pandemic and particularly the first paragraph ring differently in the context of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the last several years, there has been great concern about a possible flu pandemic around the world, but meanwhile the great pandemic of modern history,
Disease Focus Series: Stem cells for HIV/AIDS Read More »
Here an anonymous stem cell scientist frankly answers questions about the field in an interview with me. Of course I have to ask you about the recent U.S. court ruling essentially declaring all federal funding of human ES cell work illegal. What’s your take on this? ANSWER: The ruling has so many flaws in it.
Anonymous stem cell scientist frankly answers questions about the field Read More »
The Obama administration has announced it will “quickly” appeal the ES cell decision, but I’m not hearing anything about a stay on the judge’s order in the meantime or anything like that. It’s quite the opposite. The NIH, in the form of Director Francis Collins, has finally spoken about the federal judge’s ruling that apparently banned
Grim reality of the impact of judge’s ES cell decision is emerging Read More »
UPDATE: A second recent study, this one in Nature Genetics has found a novel genetic link between the immune system and Parkinson’s Disease. The authors were screening for genomic variants unique to Parkinson’s patients, finding known ones but also a novel linkage. The link was with the HLA region, known to play a key role
Parkinson’s Disease, promising new results on iPS cells Read More »