Every year I do predictions for the stem cell field for the coming year. You can see my full post on my predictions for this year here. Stay tuned soon for my predictions for 2014. How’d I do for 2013 with my predications? Each prediction for this year that I made last year is bolded […]
How’d stem cell predictions for 2013 fare? Read More »
The World Stem Cell Summit in San Diego was a great meeting this past week. It was my 3rd straight Summit and the best of all. It’s a unique mix of science, medicine, and policy that links together key players from every corner of the field. I talked stem cells one-on-one or in small groups
Key Questions for the Stem Cell Field for 2014 Read More »
Scientific reviews and scores are in for CIRM’s Disease Team III RFA. We don’t know the identifies of the applicants yet, but 3 out of 4 of the top scoring grants recommended outright for funding are focused on cancer. As a cancer stem cell researcher (and cancer survivor) I’m excited to see how well these
Cancer Grants Perform Well With CIRM Disease Team Reviews Read More »
The voting is over and we have our top 12 finalists for the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. You can see the final votes results below. It’s definitely an intriguing list that reflects the range of important areas in the field today. I can say without any hesitation that all 12 of
Dozen Finalists for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 Read More »
Stem cell technology is poised to wow the world with biomedical advances in the coming decades and Japan wants to lead the way. They want to forge ahead particularly with applications that focus on a relatively new kind of stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells. Japanese researcher, Shinya Yamanaka, first reported production
Japan Aiming For a Commanding Position on New Stem Cells Read More »
What would your predictions be for 7 years down the road and by the way please read the eye chart below out loud. How’s your vision? Today’s post is a chance to let one’s optimism and excitement about stem cells run a bit wild looking ahead not to next year, but 7 years ahead to
20/20 Stem Cell Predictions for the Year 2020 Read More »
In a rare sign of stem cell international regulatory unity, the Japanese Health Ministry (厚生労働省) and the US FDA have agreed to develop a joint, unified regulatory framework for clinical studies of human iPS cells for use in treating retinal diseases. Presumably the rules would also guide clinical use of iPS cells to treat other
FDA & Japanese Health Ministry (厚生労働省) To Develop iPS cell clinical rules Read More »
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has confirmed that one of the patient in a clinical trial that it is running for treatment of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, has shown a striking improvement in vision. The patient reportedly had 20/400 vision prior to treatment and now has 20/40 vision after treatment. ACT uses an
Striking improvement in vision in one ACT trial participant Read More »
Will intellectual property (IP) wars over patent rights to one of the most exciting new stem cell technologies hold back getting novel therapies to patients such as IPS cells? Unfortunately, it’s very possible. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are very cool stem cells made from non-stem cells through a process called cellular reprogramming. iPS cells
Putting the IP in iPS cells: patent war looming? Read More »
One of the more exciting stem cell biotechs out there today is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). At this time ACT has the only two ES cell-based FDA-approved clinical trials ongoing and so far they have looked quite promising in terms of preliminary safety data. However, ACT has much more in the pipeline including potentially iPS
Interview with Gary Rabin of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Read More »