I’m a seismologist at the University of Tokyo, where I’ve been since 1984. I was the first tenured foreign faculty member in the history of our university. If you look at my publication list on the Researcher ID site you can see that my main research recent interests are modeling seismic wave propagation and analyzing […]
Seismologist from Japan looks at the STAP cells mess Read More »
Will a few of the “elite” of the research world be on the wrong side of history when it comes to STAP cells? It seems some don’t want people talking about just how bad the STAP situation might be. Bad news may travel fast as the expression goes, but the people who talk about it may
STAP coverage ruffles some ‘elite’ stem cell feathers Read More »
A host of problems have emerged related to the two Nature papers on STAP cells and other publications by some of the same authors. It’s only been just shy of 6 weeks since these papers came out, but doesn’t it feel like about 5 years? Where will this all end? (update in 2020: closer to
Beginning of End for STAP Cell Story? Possible Outcomes Read More »
I’m hearing from multiple sources that momentum is building in Japan and even inside RIKEN itself for retraction of the STAP cell papers. This whole situation is a tragedy on so many levels and has become a no-win situation, but is it so bad at this point that retraction could possibly be the least terrible
Momentum for STAP paper retraction building Read More »
I believe that social media has on the whole had a strongly positive impact on the STAP cell situation that the stem cell field has been grappling with for 5 weeks. If the STAP method is proven to be correct at some later date, which is possible, it’s almost certain that those replication efforts will
Social Media Helps Field Deal With Stressful STAP Stem Cell Situation Read More »
A small group of the STAP authors via RIKEN have now released a detailed protocol also available at Nature Protocol Exchange for making STAP stem cells entitled “Essential technical tips for STAP cell conversion culture from somatic cells”. This comes about 5 weeks after publication of their Nature STAP stem cell papers. 2020 update: With the 4th and
Reactions to RIKEN’s STAP cell protocol Read More »
I’ve been doing a weekly-ish poll on people’s sentiments about STAP cells. It’s not scientific but many people have told me they find it interesting. Week 4’s poll is done with more than 500 votes and it is even more discouraging than week 3. See the purple line in the graph as that is the
Week 4 poll: few hopeful about STAP cells anymore Read More »
On the STAP cell front, I’ve heard several reports now that labs can sometimes see some kind of either Oct4-GFP reporter activity or pluripotency gene expression in acid treated cells, but the scientists do not seem particularly encouraged. One said that the cells gave a glimmer of interesting gene expression, but would not grow at
Latest STAP stem cell whispers: glimmers of hope or mirages? Read More »
What will the future bring for STAP stem cells? Let’s look into a stem cell crystal ball. We are now one month out from the original publication of the papers. When we are three or six or twelve months out from their publication will independent labs have succeeded in replicating the method? It’s possible, but
What does future hold for STAP stem cells? Possible paradox Read More »
I asked Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama, who goes by Teru to those who know him, if he would be willing to do a Q&A on the STAP stem cell situation. Teru was senior author on the STAP stem cell Nature letter on chimerism, but was not a senior (note this is a correction from an earlier version of this
Interview with Dr. Teru Wakayama on STAP stem cells Read More »