Many of this The Niche‘s readers ask about what my own lab’s research. What is the focus of the research of the Knoepfler Lab? You can go check out our lab website, but I thought it might be time to blog about what we are all about as a lab and what we have been […]
Knoepfler Lab: Our mission and research Read More »
Stem cell-based Regenerative Medicine has huge power for good in the clinic and at the same time great potential for economic development. Those two things go hand in hand. As I argued in my stem cell book, biotech commercialization of stem cells is not a bad thing, but rather if it is done responsibly it
Reflecting on Regenerative Medicine As A Brand Read More »
The Obokata STAP cell papers in Nature were retracted today. It feels like it’s been a long time coming in one way as for months now it has felt like retraction was inevitable, but it’s been extraordinarily fast in another way as retractions almost never happen this fast. It’s a day of mixed feelings. This
Perspectives on STAP cell Nature paper retractions Read More »
What is the Vacanti Mouse? Comedian John Oliver has an absolutely blistering segment (see below) on Dr. Oz in which he skewers the physician huckster. The video includes incredibly telling Oz testimony before Congress in which the celebrity doctor seems frankly pretty pathetic and cannot answer even simple questions about his selling of arguably snake oil on
Ear-itating: Awesome John Oliver Invokes Vacanti Mouse While Blistering Dr. Oz Read More »
What were people saying about STAP cells at the ISSCR 2014 meeting? It was a tale of two meetings when it came to STAP at ISSCR. Officially, bigwigs at the podiums only briefly mentioned it and they seemed to collectively argue that STAP was something unfortunate, but that the bigger danger was the overreaction to
STAP Cell Chatter From ISSCR Meeting Read More »
Now that it appears that the authors have all consented to eventually have both of their STAP cell Nature papers retracted, what’s next for STAP? Who knows, but below is my attempt at a top 10 list of STAP predictions looking ahead. I hope I’m wrong about several of them. 10. No insight will come
STAP cell predictions Read More »
Working together with ISSCR, last week I held a short essay contest for a free registration to ISSCR 2014 in Vancouver. I received some great entries so it was a challenge to pick just one, but the winning piece was written by student Mohamed Gatie. Congratulations to Mohamed. I hope to meet him in the Vancouver
Winning Essay for ISSCR 2014 Registration Read More »
Japanese news media are reporting that Haruko Obokata and other key authors have agreed to retract the Nature STAP cell letter, but not the Nature article. This is a major development and a peculiar one because to many in the field it is the Nature STAP cell article that is the more flawed of the two Nature papers on STAP. Why would
Obokata OKs Retraction of Nature STAP Cell Letter, Not Article Read More »
Sometimes a situation is so bad or stressful that it just calls out for some comic relief and the STAP cell mess seems to be one of those. Below are various silly attempts at STAP humor to hopefully release some of that stress. (By the way you might enjoy this 2020 piece on whatever happened to
TGIF! Some attempts at humor to release STAP cell stress Read More »
A RIKEN committee has rejected an appeal by Dr. Haruko Obokata regarding its finding of research misconduct related to two papers in Nature claiming the production of so-called STAP cells and STAP stem cells. Earlier the committee had ruled that Obokata had allegedly engaged in misconduct and that there problems with the research. Obokata appealed
RIKEN rejects Obokata appeal on alleged STAP cell misconduct Read More »