All science, whether biology or physics, whether microscopic or at the solar system level, is about experiments. Sometimes we as a society forget that. In fact, experiments are at the heart of investigations as diverse as studying cells to exploring space to medical treatments. For NASA, the last week has been a tale of two […]
NASA’s wickedly up & down week: broader lessons about science & medicine Read More »
Give prostate cancer the finger! Gotta love those pants even if you hate the exam. Cheers to John Daly for having the guts to wear such amazing pants to draw attention to prostate cancer. Prostate exams are no fun to put it mildly, but they help in early detection of this very common disease that
Give prostate cancer the finger! Amazing pants and great resources Read More »
I’m enjoying Celltex’s new website and I’m appreciative of their great responsiveness to my questions. Transparency is a beautiful thing! My latest question to them was whether they, given that the FDA called them a “drug manufacturer”, are now planning to or have already filed an IND. An IND is an application for an investigational
More Celltex Q&A: we are not a drug manufacturer Read More »
It’s been a big couple months of headlines in the news for prostate cancer. I’m a prostate cancer survivor and cancer biologist so I spend probably more than my share of time thinking about prostate cancer and from a number of angles. A few days ago I got a test result suggesting I’m still in long-term
Updated: Do Vulcans Get Prostate Cancer and get surgery for it? Read More »
Does science need some kind of version of a Dr. Oz to tell the world about science in simple, easy-to-understand ways that don’t distort the science? I’ll admit I’m not a fan of Dr. Oz for a number of reasons, but I know he has legions of fans including my mom. One of the reasons
Dr. Oz vs Carl Sagan: risks & rewards of pop-sci media and writing Read More »
Celltex is a clinic down in Texas most famous for isolating and growing up the stem cells that were given as a transplant to Texas Governor and one time GOP candidate for president, Rick Perry. The FDA audited Celltex in April for two weeks. Based on the audit of Celltex, the FDA issued a 483 form
Celltex future may hinge on a single word: drug Read More »
Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric brain tumor. However, treatments for children who are diagnosed with so-called medullos have not evolved much over the years and are largely similar to treatments given to adults for other brain tumors. One frequent event in certain medullos is amplification of two members of the MYC family of oncogenes
New medulloblastoma paper suggests novel avenues to treat this childhood cancer Read More »
Celltex is an adult stem cell company in the great state of Texas that reportedly has produced adult stem cell products used for the treatment of more than 100 patients with stem cells. We don’t know much about Celltex (e.g. it has no website), but I was hoping to change that in part via a
Predictions heat up on FDA audit of Celltex Read More »
What is a wild type human? The pursuit of “normalcy” has seriously led some scientists astray and there is no better example than the recent microbiome studies that have drawn great attention in the media. I found one aspect of their study design profoundly disturbing. First to my core question. Is there even such as
Microbiome studies highlights the trap of the pursuit of the wild type human Read More »
I have an ongoing poll on people’s impressions of the big annual stem cell meeting, ISSCR 2012. I myself have been wishing I was in Japan for that meeting so I remain surprised at the trending of the poll toward the negative. By far the most common response has been a surprisingly ho-hum “so-so” evaluation
Wish list from 2012 attendees for ISSCR 2013: some crankiness Read More »