The Japanese public broadcasting system, NHK, has been accused by scientist Haruko Obokata of violating her human rights. Obokata was the primary researcher involved in the STAP cell fiasco in which two ultimately retracted Nature papers contained duplicated, plagiarized, and manipulated data. She was certainly not the only researcher on those papers, but overall she […]
Did NHK Violate Rights of Obokata (小保方 晴子) on STAP? Read More »
Can cells produced from autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC or IPS cell) cultures sometimes be immunogenic in patients? This key question has remained somewhat unsettled due to varied findings over the years (e.g. see here), but many of us had generally felt in the last couple years that IPS cell derivative immunogenicity in an
IPS Cell Immunogenicity, Clinical Insights, & Possible Solutions Read More »
TGIF recommended weekend reads including thought-provoking reading over a beer, glass of wine, or beaker…and what would RNA taste like? Two from Alexey Bersenev The future of human limb bioengineering Translating Cell Therapies: Academic versus Industry model CIRM blog: two cool recent posts Specialized Embryonic Stem Cells Yield Insights into X Chromosome Inactivation Da Mayor and
TGIF: recommended weekend science reads & a jar full of RNA Read More »
In a new, thought-provoking paper today in Nature, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and a multi-institutional team report a significant advance toward potential novel ways to treat mitochondrial diseases. What are these illnesses? Mitochondrial diseases are rare, but devastating disorders caused by genetic mutations. Today they are largely impossible to treat in meaningful ways other than palliative care. Some
Mitalipov Nature pub review: IPSC & SCNT for mitochondrial disease Read More »
Here are some papers and news for weekend reads. What are you reading this weekend? What are your go-to stem cell journals? Hostile Takeover: Glioma Stem Cells Recruit TAMs to Support Tumor Progression by Yu Shi, Yi-fang Ping, Xia Zhang, Xiu-wu Bian in Cell Stem Cell. YAP1 Regulates OCT4 Activity and SOX2 Expression to Facilitate self-renewal and
Weekend Reads: Cool Papers, PubPeer, Jacob Hanna, & More Read More »
It’s been exciting to watch the recent developments in using stem cells as the basis for treatments for Type I Diabetes. One of the major players in this arena is the privately-held company, ViaCyte. In this post, I interview ViaCyte President and CEO, Paul Laikind. The topics include their VC-01 product, the Encaptra device, an update on
ViaCyte CEO Laikind Interview: Trial Update, Melton, & Future Read More »
The challenge to the WARF/Jamie Thomson patents/IP on human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is at an end. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Earlier, the USPTO had turned down the challenge leading to a winding road in the courts. What do you all think of this stem cell IP challenge and the
Supreme Court Rejection of WARF hESC Patent Challenge Discussion Read More »
The Japanese research institute RIKEN has come full circle in a way on the STAP cell scandal. Note that the STAP papers included not only authors from RIKEN, but also from Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. With its final report released today (also a powerpoint of images were released including the one showing a
Perspectives on final RIKEN report on STAP cell scandal & what comes next Read More »
Cloning of animals is becoming a big, global business, and Hwang Woo-Suk is a major player here. Hwang Woo-Suk and animal cloning It turns out that this reproductive cloning of animals goes well beyond making duplicates of pets for sentimental customers at $100,000 a copy. Cloning of livestock by agribusinesses is becoming fairly common. Some
Cloning Factory in China Has Familiar Partner: Hwang Woo-Suk Read More »
An open letter to CIRM. By Jeanne Loring As the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) celebrates its successes on its 10th anniversary, there is coincidentally a less happy CIRM-related event. One of CIRM’s first investments in stem cell research was a network of dedicated stem cell laboratories throughout California. This program, called “shared labs”
Loring, et al. Open Letter to CIRM: Continue Shared Labs Read More »