If it seems to you like dramatic cautionary tales about CRISPR accompanied by all sorts of media are coming at us more frequently, it’s not your imagination. In the latest yesterday, it was reported in a new paper led by Allan Bradley that CRISPR-Cas9 results in sometimes large-scale chromosomal lesions at or even away from the …
Mulling over latest CRISPR tumult, this one from Nat Biot pub on DNA lesions Read More »
“If I’m going to the trouble of cloning myself, I want the clone to be a copy of me!” I’m imagining what someone might say if they were told that their expensive and ethically dubious personal cloning efforts produced a clone that was somebody else instead of them. Even if the clone was very similar …
Surprising reason why human cloning may produce someone else Read More »
Where do things stand with IPS cell translational research? The newest development is that regulators in Japan just have given conditional approval to an Osaka University team to an induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cell-based study for ischemic heart disease. For years IPS cell-based products have been on-again off-again in active clinical study for macular degeneration, work …
Japan conditionally approves new IPS cell-based heart study Read More »
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how about a Facebook video from a stem cell clinic? In my view it sure tells a story with some unusual twists. I wrote last week about this Facebook video by Kristin Comella, the leader of the publicly-traded stem cell clinic firm US Stem Cell, Inc. (USRM). As …
Up your nose? OMG Facebook video moments from clinic sued by DOJ Read More »
I’ve been blogging about stem cells now for about 8 years and the recent level of hype about and fluffy media coverage of Celularity, the biotech spun out of Celgene, ranks right up here with the most extreme past cases I’ve seen. What is Celularity and who is its leadership? It’s a new biotech focused …
Just one word placentas: Can Celularity live up to hype? Read More »
Is monkey cloning a good idea? We’re about to find out. A new Cell paper today reports the first cloning of monkeys via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), raising many questions. The paper from a team led by Qiang Sun is entitled, “Cloning of Macaque Monkeys by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.” The highlight bullet points …
Inspired by the Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything) that I’ve done over the past few years, I’m launching this new page (new as of September 2017) where I invited readers of this blog to ask me questions. The questions can be about stem cells, CRISPR, brain cancer research, other science topics, about my lab’s research, …
Hans Keirstead is one of the top stem cell scientists in the world who has been doing cutting edge research including on using stem cells to reverse paralysis where he teamed up with super patient advocate Roman Reed (see the two pictured at right), but now he is also running for Congress. How cool is that? …
Hans Keirstead interview on his congressional run, how you can help Read More »
ISSCR meeting review By Agnes Soos Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Boston, nearly four thousand researchers and exhibitors gathered for the 15th Annual ISSCR Meeting. With presentations from over thirty plenary lectures, and dozens of others featured in concurrent sessions and the daily Innovation Showcases, there definitely was no shortage of exciting research …
Highlights of ISSCR2017 – A Biomedical Engineer’s Perspective Read More »
The Future of Genomic Medicine conference last week down in La Jolla at Scripps was one of my favorite meetings ever. I wish I had time to have live blogged it more beyond the one post I did about some gene editing talks. Below I discuss 10 top takeaways from this great meeting that I’m planning to attend …
10 takeaways from Future of Genomic Medicine meeting Read More »