Historically, the main route of proposed healing via stem cell therapy was cell replacement. In this way of thinking the transplanted cells engrafted (took up home) in the patient’s tissue and replaced dead or diseased cells. However, interest continues to grow in other possible modes of healing by stem cells that don’t rely on cell […]
4 possible roles for stem cell therapy besides cell replacement Read More »
For a long time at the end of each year, I’ve been making stem cell predictions for the coming year. Most often I’ve been making a “top 20” list of predictions and today’s post has my list for 2019. You can see how I did for 2018 here, which might have been my best year
20 stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions for 2019 Read More »
Each year I make a list of stem cell predictions for the following year and I’ll release my predictions for 2019 soon, but first I’m grading how my 20 predictions for 2018 turned out. It seems I did better than usual predicting what would happen this year. I only got a couple partial credit or
Good final grades on my 20 x 2018 stem cell predictions Read More »
When I say “gene edit” or “genome editing”, what’s the first thing that pops in your mind? It will depend on who you are. For many lay people until a few weeks ago when the world heard about He Jiankui‘s claim of CRISPR’d babies they may not have had anything pop in their heads when
Context for my Nature piece on redefining “gene edit” to be more precise Read More »
E. coli is a type of bacteria that can cause diseases such as serious GI illness if it ends up in the wrong place like in your food. You can spend the night in the bathroom or end up in the hospital or more rarely a grave depending on the subtype of E. coli. Some
E. coli & more: digging into unique new stem cell clinic lawsuit Read More »
Did Chinese researcher He Jiankui really CRISPR gene edit the CCR5 gene in two embryos producing twin baby girls? In my opinion the answer is “no”, but probably not for the reason you might think at first. He proclaims gene edits He claimed he had made twin baby girls with “gene edits”, which I feel is unethical
He Jiankui didn’t really gene edit those girls; he mutated them Read More »
Stem cell news is always burbling up, sometimes right there in front of us on the web and other times via networks of people. Astellas news. Some may remember there used to be this pioneering stem cell biotech called ACT, which then became Ocata, and finally was acquired by the big company Astellas. One of
Stem cell news bites: Astellas trial, cystic fibrosis claim, a few cool papers Read More »
I’m doing a Facebook Live question and answer on stem cells today, Monday, July 23 at Noon USA Pacific Time. Hopefully we’ll cover the exciting, legit research as well as the challenges in the field these days such as for-profit, unproven stem cell clinics out there, as well as everything in between. One possible good
Ask Your Questions on Knoepfler Facebook Live on Stem Cells Today at Noon Read More »
It’s an odd confluence of events this week that (A) the Nuffield Council, an ethics think tank, gives a thumbs up in a new report to heritable human genetic modification that would probably include using CRISPR in the same week that (B) a new paper reports that CRISPR can cause unpredictable genomic damage and several other concerning reports
Mixed Nuffield Council Report Too Aspirational on Human Genetic Modification 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 »