Could iPS cells replace ES cells? A new paper is out from a team at The Salk lead by Joseph Ecker that the methylomes of many different human iPS cells. Their conclusion is that while iPS cells and ES cells are generally very similar in terms of the global portions of the genomes that are […]
Could iPS cells replace ES cells? Read More »
What is Contagious cancer? Can one creature directly give another creature cancer? It appears so in dogs and that cancer is highly contagious. Contagious cancer When we think about transplants of cells, we think about hospitals and high-tech equipment used to give patients stem cells or other types of cells to help treat them for
Contagious cancer: the allograft your dog doesn’t want Read More »
There is a kind of invisible cultural wall between patients such as cancer patients and biomedical scientists like me, but this wall does not have to exist and indeed it is a negative wall as patients, scientists, doctors, agencies, and advocates can achieve far more together than apart. But the wall is surprisingly strong. Last
My Cancer: how I became an advocate too Read More »
What is stem cell-derived blood? In 2010 I blogged about the exciting finding that researchers could derive most blood cell types from stem cells. You can read more about that here. Here also is a video of Micky Bhatia discussing the findings: Mick Bhatia on turning skin cells into blood. Stem cell-derived blood Now comes a
Is stem cell-derived blood on the horizon? Read More »
Yesterday I wrote about how difficult it is to tell different cell lines apart, including normal stem cells and cancer stem cells, especially since some accumulate accumulate oncogenic mutations that may make them seem more similar. A new paper is coming out that makes this case on a genomic level. Tomorrow’s Cell Stem Cell edition
Devil in the details: small oncogenic lesions in iPS cells & ESC Read More »
What makes stem cells different? The stem cell field is faced with a dilemma as stem cells and some non-stem cells are sometimes too similar to tell apart. Even worse, stem cells and cancer cells are especially similar. If one focuses specifically on cancer stem cells (aka tumor initiating cells), the similarity between cancer stem
What makes stem cells different? Read More »
In this post I give my most interesting predictions about events in the stem cell field in 2011. Update: I’ve continuing doing predictions every year all the way through 2020 and intend to continue. See my 2012-2020 predictions here. Appeals court rules in favor of federally funded hESC research. This is more of a hope
Predictions for Stem Cells in 2011 Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced that the FDA has approved their second human ES cell-based clinical trial, a combined Phase I/II, for the treatment of blindness. Advanced Cell Technology As a result, soon ACT will have two active, human ES cell-based clinical trials, both using the same human ES cell-based drug. The aim of the
FDA approves Advanced Cell Technology second stem cell trial for blindness Read More »
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 »