A piece on human tails and how we lost them caught my eye so I’ll start my weekly reads with that. This week I had the fewest Zoom meetings in ages, which allowed me to get more work done in my own lab and more reading. How about that? I even had some in-person meetings […]
Recommended reads: a tale of human tails, heart reprogramming, pericytes, microglia Read More »
I’ve been following the research related to human cloning now for more than a decade. Is human cloning more possible at this point? How do we even define such cloning? Did you know there are two types? The goal of this post is to educate you and in the process answer such questions. What’s in
Human cloning is more likely now but would you take the big risks? Read More »
Could stem cell Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research provide a potential path to future treatment or preventative measures? The goal of today’s post is to provide a review of the state of the field in this area including possible approaches and challenges. You can watch a video covering the topic by Dr. Paul Knoepfler below on
Stem cell Alzheimer’s disease research Read More »
One of my main research interests is in oncodevelopmental factors. These include factors that are important both for normal stem cell biology and development as well as driving cancer when misregulated. One example includes the MYC family of proto-oncogenes. When I was a postdoc I got especially interested in trying to understand the normal role
Weekly reads: oncodevelopmental factors, iPSC cancer vaccine, more Read More »
It was a couple of years back that researcher He Jiankui claimed he made three “CRISPR babies.” No one would think about doing any kind of rogue gene-editing again, right? Not even somatic gene edits. After all, as far as we know he’s in jail. We still don’t know the health risks that these three
Ukraine clinic plans to sell CRISPR enhancements: hair color, skin, & breast size Read More »
It’s always great when there’s good news in the stem cell field and a new trial of stem cells for spina bifida here at UC Davis School of Medicine is very encouraging. So I’ll lead off with this story. Stem cells for spina bifida This pioneering work is led by Drs. Diana Farmer and Aijun
Weekly reads: stem cells for spina bifida & diabetes trials, pubs Read More »
Induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells just might be the most exciting development in the stem cell field over the last 15 years. They have unique potential for clinical impact for regenerative medicine too. This may manifest both through their use to produce differentiated cellular therapies and indirectly via disease modeling as well as
What are induced pluripotent stem cells or IPS cells? Read More »
The COVID-19 pandemic is tearing through the country right as we are starting into the holiday season, but the wheels of science including cell biology keep going and we keep reading all the great work. What news or papers caught your eye? Here are some of the things I have on my list of reading.
Weekend cell biology reads: Mesoblast COVID-19 deal, pubs Read More »
CRISPR applications in the real world The “breakthrough” gene-editing tool, CRISPR Cas9, has been utilized for various purposes since its popularization and commercialization in the early 2010s. While possible uses of gene editing in humans tend to get the most attention, the application of CRISPR-Cas9 also encompasses the animal world and the analysis of a
CRISPR critters advancing science & agriculture Read More »
Organoids are providing a novel avenue into the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and novel models for drug screening. A number of new preprints on respiratory organoids shed new light in this area. They were highlighted in a Nature newsy piece, Mini organs reveal how the coronavirus ravages the body. It’s a challenge to study COVID-19 infections because just infecting
Weekly reads: organoids, COVID-19, CIRM & cool new pubs Read More »