On May 13, 2011 I published a post entitled “Friday the 13th for iPS cells”. That day was indeed Friday the 13th and there were some reports in Nature of concerns about iPS cells in terms of immunogenicity and this had followed on the heels of reports on significant genomic and epigenomic warts in iPS […]
Stem Cell TGIF on Friday the 13th: My Reactions to the Big Recent Stories Read More »
What if you could reprogram cells inside of an organism to a different fate and, for instance, make IPS cells? We can, right? But when most of us think about making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, we imagine it all happening in a little plastic dish in our labs or in our colleague’s labs, not
Stem cell journal club: dishing on Nature paper on making iPS cells inside mice Read More »
Nominations are now open for the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. The winner receives $1,000 as well as recognition as a true difference maker and leader in the stem cell field. I found last year that all the finalists received a great deal of positive attention even if they didn’t win and
Nominations Open for 2013 Stem Cell Person of Year Award Read More »
Nominations will open tomorrow September 10th for the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. The 2012 award process involved several steps and included an online polling element that had some influence on the ultimate decision. You can see the voting on the list of finalists (who were selected from about 30 total nominees) here. Ultimately, super
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 Nominations Begin Tomorrow: $1000 Prize Read More »
Stem cell technology is poised to wow the world with biomedical advances in the coming decades and Japan wants to lead the way. They want to forge ahead particularly with applications that focus on a relatively new kind of stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells. Japanese researcher, Shinya Yamanaka, first reported production
Japan Aiming For a Commanding Position on New Stem Cells Read More »
Imagine a world in which doctors send microscopic biological machines made by 3D printing—biobots—inside our bodies to heal disease and fix injuries. A few decades ago, this kind of technology was only manifesting as the fanciful gadgets of science fiction movies. For example, the 1966 movie ‘Fantastic Voyage’ featured miniaturized objects performing a range of
Applications of 3D Printing in Stem Cells & Bioengineering Read More »
Stem cell research is exciting on many levels and provides real hope for treating an assortment of serious diseases and injuries in the future, but another potential positive of stem cells such as iPS cells is their use in producing modeling human tissues and organs to model diseases. A third positive, but often overlooked potential
Stem Cells Will Reduce Need for Research Animals Read More »
In a first for the field, scientists have used human pluripotent stem cells to grow miniature brain-like structures (brain organoids) in a dish in a lab (see beautiful image of one of these “mini-brains” at left from the paper). This exciting, pioneering feat, accomplished by a team from the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna
If I only had a brain: brain organoids from pluripotent stem cells Read More »
Is stem cell homing to sites of disease a real thing? In the stem cell field we hear this all the time: “Stem cells naturally home to areas of disease or injury.” But is it really true or just a useful myth? Such homing could be local such as if you inject stem cells into
Is stem cell homing to sites of disease a real thing or is that a myth? Take our poll Read More »
Life Technologies makes all kind of great stem cell stuff, but would you think of them as a stem cell video maker? They are a sponsor on this website and they are very excited about stem cell technology. Life’s media brand, Gibco, has a hilarious new video out on YouTube on stem cells and media
Gibco Gets its Geek on With Funny Stem Cell Promo Video Read More »