Here is another of my blog posts from yesterday’s CRISPR ethics, science, and policy symposium held here at UC Davis. You can read the others here, here, and here. Note as with the other posts, since I was taking notes as listening and on the fly, this post is a stream of consciousness on what […]
UC Davis CRISPR Mtg: Vital Role of Language in CRISPR Read More »
The second session at our CRISPR meeting was really powerful. As with other posts from the UC Davis CRISPR meeting, since I was taking notes on the fly during this session, this post is a stream of bits from the different talks, often trying to capture the essence of key questions or ideas as the speakers
UC Davis CRISPR Meeting Panel: A View from the Trenches on Human Disease Read More »
The CRISPR meeting has started off wonderfully with a talk by Ben Hurlbut. His talk was entitled, “The Demands of CRISPR’s World: Imagination, Deliberation and Governance”. Since I took notes and listened this post is somewhat freeform. I liked how Ben asked a lot of questions. What is “CRISPR’s world” as Science Magazine called it? How
UC Davis CRISPR Meeting: Big Picture from Ben Hurlbut Read More »
I am often critical of for-profit stem cell clinics on this blog for numerous reasons. For instance, one thing that concerns me greatly about these clinics is that they charge patients to get experimental “treatments” that have not been proven to be safe or effective. But as some patients have pointed out to me over the
Huge clinical trial patient fees allowed by FDA at times, details often secret Read More »
Some stuff on my mind for our TGIF Science this week. Research Funding Ups: NIH. Is it my imagination or is NIH funding slightly improving? This is the overall vibe I’m hearing from the trenches. Research Funding Ups and Downs: CIRM. CIRM funded some basic research to the tune of a total of $4 million,
TGIF Science: funding, CRISPR v. NgAgo, secrets, Zika, & more Read More »
The REGROW Act has attracted both support and criticism, including on this blog, for the changes it would mandate in the way the FDA regulates stem cell products. More specifically it would greatly reduce regulation of experimental stem cell products. I believe that would be dangerous to patients and to the stem cell field more
Is REGROW Act anti-embryo research? Pluripotent stem cells excluded Read More »
A new study on treating pain with a unique stem cell connection caught my attention. The paper was from a team at Pfizer led by Edward B. Stevens. Talk about bench to bedside, these researchers went all the way from patients to patient somatic cells to reprogrammed IPSC to neurons to model pain in a dish
Pain in a dish? Drug testing bench to bedside with IPS cells Read More »
I talked last year about human genetic modification by CRISPR with George Church a year ago. Now we’ve followed up with a long chat on this topic going into much more detail and with questions on recent developments. Each question is listed numerically and then there is a back and forth on that question with George
George Church chat: CRISPR people, Zika, weapons Read More »
One of the rewarding things about being a scientist is the opportunity to connect and even collaborate with other scientists around the world., but at the same time there is nationalism in science too. Some nations, perhaps most of them, and some scientists feel a sense of competition against others at least some of the time.
A role for nationalism in science? Read More »
By Heather Main I recently attended the UCSD Health CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network Symposium at the Sanford Consortium, San Diego. There was of course some great academic research presented, including conflicting views on liver stem cell compartments from Roel Nusse and David Brenner, and advances in CRISPR technologies from Matthew Porteus. However, what
Keys to successful stem cell translation – Nurses, physicians and patient advocates Read More »