There was a time I used to watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a regular basis and for a few years, I really enjoyed it. After a while I kind of lost interest. Today Olbermann does a sports show on ESPN and it’s just not the same. He also seems like he’s not the same […]
Keith Olbermann, the Dr. Oz of Sports? Read More »
A new piece came out yesterday on the Wellcome Trust Blog, strongly promoting approval of so-called “3-Parent IVF” or Mitochondrial Transfer technology by the UK Parliament. As I written in the past (here and here), my view is that this would be a mistake at this time. There is room for respectful disagreement on this issue between scientists,
Big push for 3-parent IVF technology in UK Read More »
An open letter to CIRM. By Jeanne Loring As the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) celebrates its successes on its 10th anniversary, there is coincidentally a less happy CIRM-related event. One of CIRM’s first investments in stem cell research was a network of dedicated stem cell laboratories throughout California. This program, called “shared labs”
Loring, et al. Open Letter to CIRM: Continue Shared Labs Read More »
The following is a response to my Open Letter to the UK Parliament on mitochondrial transfer/3-parent technology from Drs. Peter Braude and Robin Lovell-Badge. Dear Professor Knoepfler, We read your open letter to the UK Parliament and the Science and Technology Committee with interest and concern. We are two scientists, like you, with particular interests
CIRM issued a press release (PR) a few days ago unveiling CIRM 2.0, a new form of the agency and funding of novel efforts. The PR focused on action by its Governing Board to fund three Alpha Clinic programs for $8 million each at City of Hope (LA), UCLA, and UCSD. The Alpha Clinics will
CIRM 2.0 Launches Alpha Clinics & Continues Bridges Program Read More »
I had the idea of something called Prostate cancer postcards. In a few days it will be the 5-year anniversary of my diagnosis with a very serious form of prostate cancer. So far since then I’ve been doing pretty well (knock on wood). I am still getting PSA tested and life still has a cancer thread
Prostate cancer postcards Read More »
This post is the first in a series about the Clinicaltrials.gov website. This piece is an interview the Director, Dr. Deborah Zarin. I want to thank her for taking the time to answer my questions. Later, I will post Part 2 in which I discuss my concerns about the trend of for-profit stem cell clinic trials
Interview with Clinicaltrials.gov Director Deborah Zarin Read More »
Nikkei is reporting that the RIKEN internal attempt to replicate so-called STAP (acid bath) cells has failed. Update: apparently, although RIKEN calls the efforts preliminary, the team tried to make STAP an amazing 22 times and 22 times it failed. The rumors for weeks in the stem cell gapevine that RIKEN itself could not get
RIKEN fails to reproduce STAP, big CDB shake up expected Read More »
Who is trying, via the name BioGatekeeper, Inc., to nullify Yamanaka’s patent on cellular reprogramming to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells? The readers of this blog never cease to amaze me. What an informed, energetic, bright group. Within just days they may have collectively shed some light on an intriguing mystery in the stem cell field surrounding the
Blog readers investigate BioGatekeeper, the Yamanaka patent challenger Read More »
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 »