Stem cell studies continue to make big news with a mixed bag of trends including for stem cell biotech, and some good stem cell news and others not so much. Mesoblast ($MESO) had its stock suspended for quite so time recently in anticipation of a big announcement. When that news came today it was discouraging in […]
Stem cell biotech bites: Mesoblast, BioTime, MS, FDA Warning, & More Read More »
What should postdoc pay be these days? Labor law changes will mandate a pay increase to around $47,000 to start for the nation’s postdoctoral fellows because of overtime rules that in most cases will lead to a bump in postdoc pay. It’s about time, right? However, despite good intentions, some concerns have been raised about this
Poll: what’s your view of mandatory increase to postdoc pay Read More »
A committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) did one heck of a document dump yesterday on stem cell policy, releasing a whole bunch of policy recommendations on stem cells and more. The torrent from ISSCR included a 37-page policy statement itself as well as several papers in top journals including the
ISSCR Releases Flood of Stem Cell Policy Docs Read More »
I talked last year about human genetic modification by CRISPR with George Church a year ago. Now we’ve followed up with a long chat on this topic going into much more detail and with questions on recent developments. Each question is listed numerically and then there is a back and forth on that question with George
George Church chat: CRISPR people, Zika, weapons Read More »
Should we be injecting bone marrow cells into someone’s eyes? it seems like a terrible idea to me based on what we currently know. Whenever I see a stem cell headline like this one from a recent Baltimore Sun piece, it raises many questions: Stem cells apparently reverse woman’s blindness. First of all, is the reporter,
Study injects marrow cells into eye, charges $20K Read More »
A great new piece in The New Yorker by Dana Goodyear, The Stress Test, gives us a window into Charles Vacanti’s side of the STAP cell mess and includes recent quotes from him. It’s a long, fascinating look inside of STAP, the tangled and ultimately tragic scientific implosion that created and then brought down two Nature
Finally, Vacanti’s side of STAP cell implosion Read More »
The FDA in the past year or so has issued draft guidances on regulation of stem cells that would, if finalized, make it crystal clear that what many American stem cell clinics are selling are unapproved drugs. That would be a good thing for patients who are often being put at risk by many of
FDA meeting on stem cell regs: mostly who’s who of anti-regulation forces Read More »
Sounds recommended weekend reads for you to enjoy since it is Friday and almost the weekend including stem cells, CRISPR, cats, cloning, and more. Holy GMO, China wants to buy Syngenta. RetractionWatch says that Macchiarini will soon be out at Karolinska. For more on this “super surgeon” who used stem cells, see here regarding recent Vanity
TGIF weekend reads: stem cells, GMOs, #CRISPR, cats, cloning and more Read More »
With the approval today of the use of CRISPR in human embryos, the UK continues its recent trend toward a more permissive regulatory policy on human genetic modification. There are both risks and scientific benefits that come along with this trend. Last year the UK approved an experimental technology with the goal of preventing the
CRISPR embryo OK signals ongoing liberal UK trend on human modification Read More »
Over at RetractionWatch, their team does a great job following retractions of science papers. Sadly, the number of published manuscript retractions gives them more than enough material to post several times a day. There’s another phenomenon going on that I think might warrant their increased attention: the possibly rising number of retractions or corrections of science
Science press releases behaving badly: time to start tracking their retractions? Read More »