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 through it for me. As much as having cancer is […]
Prostate cancer postcards Read More »
With one week left to vote to pick the top 12 finalists for the Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award, we have more than 2,800 votes in so far. From the top 12 vote-getters, I will choose the winner. This is the third year of this award. I self-fund this award out of
Stem Cell Person of the Year Award 2014 Voting: Who Will Be Finalists? Read More »
It’s hard to even imagine the world of investigative medicine without the wonderful resource of Clinicaltrials.gov, the global hub for clinical trial listings. I recently interviewed the Director of Clinicaltrials.gov, Dr. Deborah Zarin here, which is a fascinating read. As great as Clinicaltrials.gov is as a resource, unfortunately it faces a new, rapidly growing problem that is a serious
Clinicaltrials.gov Mission At Risk From Proliferating For-Profit Trials Read More »
The idea of using stem cells for treat Type I Diabetes is very promising and could have huge practical impact. Real progress has been achieved toward this goal over the last decade. In perhaps another decade there might be a validated treatment. A new stem cell paper has just come out in Cell from Harvard in this
Takeaways From Harvard Stem Cells for Diabetes Paper Read More »
Can stem cells some day cure baldness? This is about more than vanity. Baldness can also be due to a medical condition or a side effect of a treatment of another kind. Many medical procedures such as radiation treatment for brain cancer or chemo as well as medical conditions such as burns or alopecia cause baldness,
Skeptical look at stem cells for baldness: hope vs. hype Read More »
Nominations have closed and we have more than two dozen nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014. It’s an exciting, diverse group including some news faces as well as nominees from years past as well. Happy Stem Cell Day! You can now vote for your choice for the top finalists in the poll
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award: Vote To Choose 12 Finalists Read More »
How do “drugs” influence stem cells? Here’s the straight dope. Those of us in the trenches of the stem cell research field spend an inordinate amount of time talking about stem cell treatments (i.e. you inject stem cells into a person hoping for a medical benefit), and far too little time discussing endogenous stem cells.
These are your stem cells on drugs…any questions? Read More »
How are stem cells, nukes, and bikini experts connected? Let’s go back in time a bit… The idea of stem cells has been around more than a century. For example Dr. Artur Pappenheim made a cell fate tree including stem cells in 1905. You can read more about this amazing, more than 100-year old stem
Stem Cells, Nukes, & Bikini Experts Read More »
In a major first for the stem cell and regenerative medicine fields, a patient in Japan today received a pioneering transplant of a retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) sheet made from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, also known by the acronym IPSC. This is the first ever iPS cell-based transplant into a human. The patient is
Landmark: patient receives first ever iPS cell based transplant Read More »
The last two years at Nature Magazine have seen a surprising wave of paper retractions. In 2013 and now just so far in 2014, Nature has retracted a total of 14 papers. How unusual is that? Historically, Nature retracts relatively few papers, perhaps just under two per year on average. What the heck has been going on in 2013-2014? Let’s break it
Could Nature’s 2-year torrent of paper retractions be a good thing? Read More »