Reportedly, Geron has decided to only focus on cancer research and for financial reasons has shut down its hESC trial for spinal cord injury. This is a very sad day for stem cell science. (Update in 2020: the firm still exists, but is working in different areas. The stock has struggled.) No more spinal cord …
Bad news as Geron to quit hESC SCI trial for financial reasons Read More »
I recently did a post telling you about one of my favorite molecules, Myc, which is important not only in cancer but also in most, if not all stem cells including iPS cells. There’s a lot more to Myc and how it does it’s tricks in embryonic stem cells and iPS cells. It cannot do …
What with the Mississippi “personhood” amendment up for a vote today and also the Vatican Adult Stem Cell Conference beginning tomorrow, I thought today was a good time for a post about adult versus embryonic stem cells. Does stem cell research have to be either/or? Adult or stem? Can’t someone be for both adult and …
Key points about adult versus embryonic stem cells Read More »
Often when we dig a little into the science of stem cells, people get turned off by all the strange names of molecules and jargon. However, whether you are a scientist, patient, investor, reporter, etc. there are some aspects of stem cell science that are ‘musts’ to know about. For example, you need to know …
Want to understand stem cells? Then you have to know Myc! Read More »
What does “ethical” stem cell research mean? What is “unethical” stem cell research? Who decides the answers to these questions? A church? Governments? Individual people? The reality is that we all have our own opinions about what is ethical or unethical not only when it comes to stem cells, but for pretty much everything. For …
I highly recommend that you guys check out the new blog by my friend, Keri Kimler. Keri is an awesome resource about stem cell research and her blog is not surprisingly, a wonderful source of information too. You can see Keri in this video from the World Stem Cell Summit: Keri is Vice Chair of …
Check out new blog about stem cells by Keri Kimler Read More »
Every now and then I do a post on something fun and non-science related, and today it’s all about Seattle. Since it’s Friday, don’t you wish you were on vacation in Seattle? If you can ever imagine visiting Seattle in the near future, bookmark this page because I give suggestions for great things (some that …
Six fun, amazing, sometimes secret things to do in Seattle Read More »
I love readers’ comments on my blog. I wish there were a lot more comments so I hope that that builds over time. One challenge to having a dialogue via comments on a blog is that there is so much spam. How much spam you might ask? You may be surprised to learn that my …
You know about spam, but what does ham have to do with blogging? Read More »
In mid-November the Catholic Church, in fact the Vatican itself, will do something it has never done before in its very long existence. It will hold a conference on stem cells. Perhaps equally unusual and of interest is the fact that the basis for this conference is a $1 million (USD) gamble by the Vatican …
More on the Vatican $1 million gamble on NeoStem and their upcoming conference in Rome Read More »
Why does it worry me that the Vatican is having a stem cell conference? One of the hallmarks of Democracy is separation of church and state. When states mix religion into politics and government, the results have during human history been disastrous. Equally dismal has been the relationship between religion and science. Ever since the …
The Vatican Stem Cell Meeting…is mixing religion and science a good idea? Read More »