Cancer patients and their doctors face daunting challenges at the time of diagnosis. Many crucial questions either cannot be answered or rely upon relatively low-tech methods whose accuracy is far from ideal. For example, how aggressive is this tumor? Has it already spread? After diagnosis and initial treatment, it is critical to monitor patients for […]
One in a billion: finding stray cancer stem cells Read More »
It has been a rollercoaster few months between the anti-hESC court cases as well as Geron and Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) receiving the OK from the FDA to proceed with initial clinical trials of stem cell treatments. It’s OK to be excited about the clinical trials and I for one am, but we have to
Challenges translating stem cell treatments to patients Read More »
The FDA has given Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) the go ahead to begin their clinical trial using retinal progenitor cells derived from hESC by clearing the company’s IND application, bringing hope to those with vision loss and even blindness. The trial will be a combined Phase I/II to treat Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy and has huge
The trouble with the risk of teratoma presents a stem cell paradox. Stem cells possess two traits lacking in other cells: self-renewal and pluripotency. This duo of defining functions is key to the ability of stem cells to be used to treat patients via regenerative medicine. A paradox exists because while self-renewal and pluripotency are both
The trouble with teratoma: a stem cell paradox Read More »
If IPS cells are not ready for prime time, it is probably due to these three critical challenges for these amazing cells. TUMORIGENICITY Those of us who work with IPS cells are very excited about their potential for use in regenerative medicine therapies. One serious hurdle we have talked about in the past is tumorigenicity.
Not ready for prime time: the three critical challenges for IPS cells Read More »
Cancer is a class of diseases that are intimately linked to stem cells. In fact, I would go so far as to call some types of cancer cells and stem cells, cousins. This concept, of a tight relationship between stem and cancer cells, is under intense investigation but at the same time it is something
Disease Focus Series: Cancer Read More »
It has been an eventful year so far for the stem cell field. Where do we go from here ? What are the key questions that face the field? Below are my top 10 questions for the field, NOT listed in any particular order, and some predictions. Update: you can see the predictions for the
Questions & my predictions for the stem cell field right now Read More »
One question I am frequently asked by readers and colleagues is “what other stem cell blogs or bloggers can you recommend that are written by a stem cell scientist and updated on a regular basis?” The simple but surprising answer: there are none. It’s lonely out here in cyberspace! (2020 update: The good news today
How many scientist bloggers does it take to change a light bulb? Read More »
CIRM Board Member, Jeff Sheehy, has a wonderful piece in Nature Medicine on why patient advocates play a critical role in decision making on research priorities (hat tip to Amy Adams who first blogged on Sheehy’s piece). Patient advocates bring a unique and valuable perspective to the table. Their role in guiding CIRM research funding
Why scientists must be advocates too: Jeff Sheehy Read More »
2020 update: This post from almost 10 years ago on the HIV pandemic and particularly the first paragraph ring differently in the context of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the last several years, there has been great concern about a possible flu pandemic around the world, but meanwhile the great pandemic of modern history,
Disease Focus Series: Stem cells for HIV/AIDS Read More »