By Heather Main I moved to the San Diego from Australia in August 2015, and Paul asked me if I could write something on my first impressions of doing science in the US, as opposed to other countries I have worked/studied in (Australia, Scotland, Sweden and Singapore). If you look at the land size of […]
First impressions of the US stem cell environment from an Aussie Read More »
Patients are increasingly being used as guinea pigs in the stem cell for-profit clinic world via what I call stem cell shot-in-the-dark procedures. The clinics have no logical basis for claiming that these treatments work and are safe. As the number of stem cell clinics continues to grow in the US and more physicians add on
A stem cell shot in the dark: clinics experiment on patients Read More »
Shinya Yamanaka is one of my favorite fellow scientists. His research is creative and rigorous along with having huge clinical implications. At the same time, Dr. Yamanaka sees the big picture and he’s very open about talking about real life as a scientist. I really appreciate both levels. In the past I interviewed him for
Takeaways from new Yamanaka (山中伸弥) stem cell interview Read More »
What were the top 10 stem cell stories of the year? What were the biggest news and science headlines in the stem cell field in 2015, whether good or bad? Below are mine. What are your top 10 stem cell stories of the past year? Let us know in the comments. Organoids explode. Stem cell-based
Key stem cell stories of the year 2015 Read More »
Both before and particularly now after the big human gene editing summit in Washington, D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences, I’ve talked with patients about their views on this new technology including at last week’s World Stem Cell Summit. One of the most striking moments of the DC summit was when the mother of
Just freakin do it: patients voice impatience on CRISPR for genetic diseases Read More »
It’s been a great couple days so far here at the World Stem Cell Summit in Atlanta. You can follow it on Twitter using the #WSCS15 hash tag. I first attended it 5 years ago in Pasadena. One of the special aspects of WSCS is it brings together diverse stakeholders in a way that just
World Stem Cell Summit 2015: IPS cells, #CRISPR, CAR-T Read More »
I just got back from a historic summit on human genetic modification in Washington, D.C. New genetic modification technology, termed CRISPR-Cas9, has both made genetic modification a relatively simple matter for scientists and human genetic modification much more likely in the near future. Heritable human genetic modification could prevent some rare genetic diseases so there
Day 2 of the Human Gene Editing Summit in DC (#GeneEditSummit) was quite interesting and added more depth to the meeting overall. For specific talks, see my two posts from yesterday here and here. Also see my top takeaways from Day 1. What were the top highlights of Day 2 of #GeneEditSummit? Somatic work. We
Highlights from day 2 of #GeneEditSummit Read More »
How do governance issues for human genome editing work at the international level? Indira Nath, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, gives a nice overview to start the session. She raised the example of medical tourism and surrogacy in India. She argued for an international consensus on what is permissible on human gene editing. How
Live Blog #GeneEditSummit Day 2 Post #2: International Governance Read More »
Now we have an interesting panel starting on questions of governance on human gene editing. This will focus on institutional and national levels of governance. Pilar N. Ossorio, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Morgridge Institute for Research, is introducing the panel. Key question: how should emerging technologies being governed? Jonathan Kimmelman, from McGill, was the first
Live Blogging #GeneEditSummit Day 2 Post #1: Governance of human gene editing Read More »