If you are wondering, “How will iPS cells get to help patients?” part of the answer is perhaps the big player and Japanese Institution, Riken and its arm Retina Institute of Japan. The stem cell field is still abuzz about induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells 7 years after their discovery. This amazing embryonic stem cell-like cells can […]
Meet Retina Institute of Japan: translating iPS cells Read More »
I’ve been fortunate to interview some of the greats in the stem cell field for this blog and host debates between key players. Please note that just because I have interviewed folks does not mean I agree with them or that they agree with me. The point is to establish dialogue on key issues. As
Interviews with leaders and top players in the stem cell field Read More »
I’ve already talked with science writer Ed Yong about the new Nature iPS cell paper Araki, et al. (you can read Ed’s well-written piece here and you can another one on it by another one of my favorite writers, Monya Baker here), which suggests that iPS cells don’t trigger much in the way of an immune
Some thoughts on the Araki Nature iPS cell paper: an advance, but a few key caveats Read More »
Every year I make predictions about what the following year will bring us in the stem cell field. For example, last year I made some predictions for 2012 and I shortly will do a post on my predictions for 2013. First, how did I do with my predictions for this year, which I made in
It was near to a stem cell wonk’s heaven to be in the audience for a panel discussion, entitled Understanding the Legal and Policy Challenges to Stem Cell Research, here at the World Stem Cell summit in Florida late this afternoon. The stellar panel included Jeanne Loring of Scripps, Beth Roxland of Hofstra University and formerly of
WSCS2012: outstanding panel discussion on legal challenges to stem cell research Read More »
The iPS cell field has run fast and furious over the past 6 years reaching a big milestone surprisingly quickly on Monday with Shinya Yamanaka winning the Nobel Prize. But is the field going too fast? In August I argued that iPS cells are not quite ready for primetime (i.e. clinical trial studies). Now in
Are iPS cells being rushed to the clinic or has their time come? Read More »
I keep seeing these eerie parallels between thalidomide & dubious stem cell treatments. What’s the first rule of medicine again? Do no harm! Rushing new medicines such as stem cell treatments to patients without appropriate preliminary studies to try to make money is like playing Russian Roulette with patients. Some of the time, everything will
Eerie parallels between thalidomide & dubious stem cell treatments Read More »
“I lied to patients,” testified a weeping, young woman in court related to a fraud allegation involving stem cells. She had worked as an office assistant at a company that injected bogus and potentially dangerous cow-based “stem cell” treatments into human patients. This company, which in different incarnations went by various names including Biomark in
Testimony in supermodel stem cell fraud case: “I lied to patients” Read More »
Last year one of the biggest events in the stem cell field was biotech Geron punting its embryonic stem cell (ESC) program. Much consternation followed. Some folks opposed to ESCs happily pronounced ESC research dead. Some folks in favor of ESC thought the world was ending a year early. Others tried to look on the
The stem cell gestalt of Geron Goodbye and the future of ACT Read More »
Of course stem cells and their caretakers never sleep or take the weekend off, right? But still TGIF! Last week we had some really good and some ugly stem cell headlines that I covered here. How was this week? Good. ES cell differentiation requires chromatin compaction. A PLoS Genetics paper by a team led by Yuhong
TGIF: headlines on stem cells for May 11 Read More »