Back-to-back papers (here and here) in Nature Biotechnology report the transdifferentiation (now often simply referred to as “direct reprogramming”) of plain old fibroblasts into brain cells called oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). OPCs are a remarkably useful kind of brain cell that generates myelin, which insulates nerves. OPCs are thought to have great therapeutic potential for […]
Was sind Stammzellen? Der menschliche Körper enthält Hunderte von verschiedenen Zellarten, die für unsere tägliche Gesundheit wichtig sind. Diese Zellen sind verantwortlich für das tägliche Funktionieren unseres Körpers, wie das Schlagen des Herzes, das Denken des Gehirns, das Säubern unseres Blut durch die Nieren, das Ersetzen unsere Hautzellen, und so weiter. Die wichtige und einzigartige
Was sind Stammzellen? Read More »
Today is part of 4 (the last) of my interview with Dr. Arnold Caplan, MSC godfather and guru. You can read parts 1-3 of the interview here, here, and here. In this post I focus on my discussion with Caplan on translation of stem cells to patients and the FDA. During our conversation we talked about some
Interview with Arnold Caplan, Part 4: the FDA and the Future Read More »
The Asahi Shimbun just published a fun, intriguing interview with Shinya Yamanaka, the Nobel Laureate who first produce iPS cells. In the interview, Yamanaka says that the celebrity aspect of his new post-Nobel life has driven him to wear disguises when out running in public because he gets recognized so often. Yamanaka is also asked
Great new Yamanaka interview on iPS cell safety, being a celebrity, & future plans Read More »
I recently interview Arnold Caplan, the father of the MSC field, and published part 1 of the interview (you can read it here). Today in part 2 we cover more topics of great importance related to MSCs including propagation, placebos, and patients as well as publishing. A hot topic in the stem cell world more
Interview with Arnold Caplan Part 2 Read More »
Allan Robins of Viacyte (pictured at left–sorry for the fuzzy image) and Paul Simmons of Mesoblast presented this morning at the CIRM Grantee Meeting. Both talks were outstanding. Robins went first. He started by saying how Viacyte had a productive pre-IND meeting with the FDA last year. I believe a target for them is to
Viacyte & Mesoblast present at CIRM Meeting Read More »
Over the last few weeks, I have enjoyed talking with and interviewing Dr. Allan Wu, of The Morrow Institute on stem cell cosmetic procedures. I was impressed greatly by his talk at the World Stem Cell Summit last year. Dr. Wu is a fellowship trained Surgical Molecular Biologist with a background in Molecular Embryology and a board
Interview with Regenerative Surgeon, Dr. Allan Wu Read More »
It is always exciting when a biomedical technology as revolutionary as iPS cells is on the cusp of being used in patients for the first time. In the last few days stories have reported about how a proposed clinical trial based on iPS cells has completed several regulatory steps and is closer to starting. This
The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell field has been red hot over the approximately first half dozen years of its existence from 2006-2011. However, as I blogged about here part way through 2012, it was showing signs of cooling off a bit in terms of the shear output of publications. It turns out that now
IPS cell field milestone: 2012 is first year with fewer publications than previous Read More »
The headline quoting George Church reads: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Supposedly Harvard Geneticist George Church, according to Der Spiegel magazine (and gazillions of other mainstream media outlets that translated the German piece including here), wants to clone a Neanderthal baby using an unholy combination of stem cell and genetics technologies. The only problem
George Church: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Read More »