Search Results for: US Stem Cell

What is the connection between sperm and brain tumors?

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H3.3

Sperm and brain tumors? Sometimes in science there are unexpected threads tying seemingly very different things together. Unraveling the knots in these threads can lead to new insights into important developmental processes and mechanisms of disease. My lab studies epigenomic and transcription factors including a molecule called histone variant H3.3 (more here on H3.3). H3.3 […]

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ACT reinventing itself with new name Ocata Therapeutics

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advanced-cell-technology

Here is a link to the Ocata website, marking the start of a new era for what was formerly Advanced Cell Technology or ACT. It’s been a big summer for stem cell biotech Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock ACTCD) as it continues what I would call a process of reinventing itself. What’s been happening? ACT recently

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STAP papers blistered by Nature’s own reviewers were then accepted

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STAP-magic

The reviews of a STAP paper submitted to and rejected by the journal Science in 2012 were posted at Retraction Watch yesterday. They filled in some gaps in the puzzle of the series of events that led to such flawed science being published in Nature in January 2014, but the reviews also raised more questions. Today, more STAP paper

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Full Reviews of Rejected STAP Paper Point to Early Signs of Big Trouble

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Before the two STAP cell papers were published in Nature in January of 2014, much of the same data was reportedly submitted as single papers to other high-profile journals including Science. In these cases, the proto-STAP papers as we might call them were rejected. But why? Until now we largely could only speculate. However, the reviews

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Could Nature’s 2-year torrent of paper retractions be a good thing?

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Nature

The last two years at Nature Magazine have seen a surprising wave of paper retractions. In 2013 and now just so far in 2014, Nature has retracted a total of 14 papers. How unusual is that? Historically, Nature retracts relatively few papers, perhaps just under two per year on average. What the heck has been going on in 2013-2014? Let’s break it

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RIKEN fails to reproduce STAP, big CDB shake up expected

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STAP-stem-cells

Nikkei is reporting that the RIKEN internal attempt to replicate so-called STAP (acid bath) cells has failed. Update: apparently, although RIKEN calls the efforts preliminary, the team tried to make STAP an amazing 22 times and 22 times it failed. The rumors for weeks in the stem cell gapevine that RIKEN itself could not get

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Is transactional science kicking transformative science’s butt?

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Science

What kind of scientist are you and do you engage in transactional science? I suspect that all of us scientists like to think that most of the work that we do is transformative and that we are a transformative scientist. In science we hear quite a lot about the importance of transformative, innovative science. But can

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Reflecting on Sasai tragedy, STAP, & flawed field of science

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Yoshiki_Sasai_circa_2012

Today has been a dark day of mourning for science following the death by suicide of Dr. Yoshiki Sasai. I did not know Dr. Sasai personally, but was very impressed with his work. His suicide leaves me feeling very sad and it seems like an appropriate time for reflection. (update I did a post on suicides by

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