It’s always exciting when your lab has a new paper and my team just published a study knocking out the H3f3a gene in mice, which codes for histone H3.3 protein. We found that loss of this gene leads to lethality at a late stage of embryonic development. There were also indications of more specific phenotypes […]
Weekly reads: H3.3 on the brain, Texas bill, HSCs Read More »
Let’s start with a couple of new pieces on in vivo reprogramming. The idea here is to do something like making iPS cells but doing it inside organisms and not quite pushing cells all the way back to pluripotency. Just younger, healthier cells. Why do that? The goal is to achieve a kind of anti-aging
Weekly reads: reprogramming aging, astrocytes, cartilage, ChatGPT Read More »
The FDA seems oddly slow in oversight of unproven stem cell clinic-related firms like one here in California called Invitrx Therapeutics. I’ve written before about Invitrx, but interactions between them and the FDA have continued including a new warning letter. It’s become a puzzling situation. More broadly, the FDA has done relatively little in the past
3rd Invitrx warning highlights FDA oversight weakness Read More »
I tend to perhaps over-focus on human CRISPR or gene editing, but other applications including in agriculture are definitely going to be huge. CRISPR in agriculture One that I’ve been following for a long time is the use of CRISPR to prevent cows from growing horns. Why is that a big deal? Just in the
Weekly reads: CRISPR chicks, HSCs, sequencing Mendel Read More »
I started The Screamers a few years back as a biomedical science hype award. It’s kind of in the spirit of an Ig Noble Prize in the sense of an alternative “award”, but in this case for hype. In 2020, sadly the FDA Commissioner at the time Stephen Hahn won The Screamers award for a
2022 The Screamers Science Hype Award goes to The BBC Read More »
Out of the blue this past week we lost Kevin McCormack of CIRM to a heart attack. When I first heard, my reaction was that can’t be, but it is. About Kevin McCormack If you aren’t familiar with him, Kevin was officially Director of Patient Advocacy at our state’s Stem Cell Agency. However, he was
Weekly reads: Kevin McCormack passes, HSCs & RXR, Ethics Read More »
There have been rare instances like with scientist James Wilson where researchers were involved in what I would call major misconduct but somehow managed to bounce back. In a sense, they were given second chances in part by regulators but also by other scientists or supporters. However, after extraordinary misconduct, especially contributing to the death
2nd chances after big misconduct? He Jiankui, James Wilson, others Read More »
Something called a P shot has sparked interest from some men interested in high-risk attempts at enhancement. The goal of today’s review post is to fact-check P shots. They’re sold for supposed penis enhancement or to address erectile dysfunction (ED). I’ll also fact-check so-called O shot stabs at vaginal rejuvenation or enhancement. These are both
Reviews of P shot & O shot stabs at sexual enhancement Read More »
We’ll start with a story related to possible research misconduct, Stanford’s President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and Science Magazine. In some ways the news on Science itself could be the bigger long-term story. Marc Tessier-Lavigne pub investigation, Science oops moment Here’s some of the coverage: Stanford investigates potential misconduct in president’s research, Science. Multiple publications of Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Weekly reads: Marc Tessier-Lavigne probe, Neuralink on the brain, Ras unchained Read More »
I get a lot of questions about stem cells for ALS and more recently people have been specifically interested in NurOwn from BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics. Recently, the FDA denied BrainStorm’s request for a BLA for NurOwn. The company felt its Phase III trial was encouraging. It sounds like they will move forward with a follow-up
Weekly reads: NurOwn, key gene screen, MS, Croce mess Read More »