In late 2010, Nicholas Wade, then a frequent science writer for the New York Times, wrote a frankly nasty piece on the stem cell field that was insulting and oversimplistic. Now today we have yet another piece in the NYT by Wade on stem cells, and he mostly makes a mess of it again, with […]
Nicholas Wade of the New York Times again Misses the Stem Cell Boat Read More »
Over at Health in the Global Village, Leigh Turner yesterday published an excellent piece updating us all on the latest news on Korean stem cell company RNL BIo (알앤엘바이오) and its leader, Dr. Jeong Chan Ra (라정찬 ). Addition: The story was reported in several Korean news outlets including Hani here. A video here by MBC News of Korea, one
Jeong Chan Ra Arrest: Can RNL Bio (알앤엘바이오) Survive? Read More »
I have some interest in robotic surgery. About three and a half years ago I had surgery for prostate cancer and my surgeon used the da Vinci robotic surgery device made by Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG). At the time, da Vinci seemed new and exciting, but the device and the company have become more well-known
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Gets Problematic FDA Inspection Report Read More »
The big stem cell buzz the last day or two has been the news exploding across mainstream media outlets about laboratory-produced human liver grown from stem cells. It’s good news to be sure as it would seem we might be one important step closer to a new reality for millions of people suffering from liver disease.
Perspectives on human micro liver structures made from iPS cells Read More »
Is a treatment based on stem cells for Parkinson’s Disease on the horizon? A Japanese team of researchers led by Dr. Jun Takahashi, professor at Kyoto University is reportedly aiming to start on human studies of an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-based treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) as early as fiscal year (FY) 2014. In
Trial of Stem Cells for Parkinson’s Disease on Horizon Read More »
One of my favorite stem cell scientists is Jeanne Loring of Scripps. She does great science and when you ask her questions, she frankly states her opinions and is clearly a gifted educator at heart too. Below is a Q&A interview I did with Jeanne on key issues of clinical translation of iPS cells. You
Jeanne Loring interview: optimism on clinical translation of IPS cells Read More »
I recently did a poll asking people if they are or are not going to ISSCR and in either case, why. The results (at right) are pretty interesting. The #1 answer was that respondents were not going and the reason was that attending would be too expensive. Two other reasons given for not attending (tied
ISSCR 2013 poll results: encouraging but travel awards needed Read More »
In previous years I’ve done yearly predictions for the coming year’s events in the stem cell world (see predictions for 2011 and 2012 predictions). I did pretty well in my predicting stem cell events for this year (see analysis here) scoring a respectable 70%. Isn’t that a C-?,you might ask. No, when it comes to
My stem cell predictions for 2013 Read More »
Every year I make predictions about what the following year will bring us in the stem cell field. For example, last year I made some predictions for 2012 and I shortly will do a post on my predictions for 2013. First, how did I do with my predictions for this year, which I made in
The field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has really shaken up science over the last half dozen years reversing our notion that differentiated cells are stuck in that fate, when in reality they are plastic and can “turn back the clock” to become embryonic stem cell-like cells. Now we have an iPSC paper in Nature,
Surprising human mosaicism means not all your cells have the same DNA Read More »