Glioblastoma and other related malignant glioma tumors including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) are some of the most devastating of all human cancers, and glioma stem cells may contribute to the lethality. You can see an image of a glioma (the white area in the brain scan) from Wikipedia above. These brain tumors usually kill […]
Are glioma stem cells a path to better outcomes? Read More »
What were people saying about STAP cells at the ISSCR 2014 meeting? It was a tale of two meetings when it came to STAP at ISSCR. Officially, bigwigs at the podiums only briefly mentioned it and they seemed to collectively argue that STAP was something unfortunate, but that the bigger danger was the overreaction to
STAP Cell Chatter From ISSCR Meeting Read More »
I’ve really enjoyed day 2 of ISSCR 2014. So far this day has already packed in a slew of great talks both in the lecture halls and outside one-on-one with old friends and new ones. How great is that? I’ll focus on just a few highlights to keep it concise. Dubious stem cell clinics and
ISSCR 2014 Day 2: Navigating Balanced Stem Cell Path to Clinic Read More »
Working together with ISSCR, last week I held a short essay contest for a free registration to ISSCR 2014 in Vancouver. I received some great entries so it was a challenge to pick just one, but the winning piece was written by student Mohamed Gatie. Congratulations to Mohamed. I hope to meet him in the Vancouver
Winning Essay for ISSCR 2014 Registration Read More »
When bioethicist Arthur Caplan talks about stem cells, people pay close attention and for good reason. Caplan has provided important perspectives on the stem cell field over the years. For example, you can see a guest post on this blog here about human cloning. However, in my post today I respectfully discuss how I disagree with several parts of this week’s piece by
Arthur Caplan Article on Bogus Stem Cell Research: Some Different Views Read More »
Sometimes a situation is so bad or stressful that it just calls out for some comic relief and the STAP cell mess seems to be one of those. Below are various silly attempts at STAP humor to hopefully release some of that stress. (By the way you might enjoy this 2020 piece on whatever happened to
TGIF! Some attempts at humor to release STAP cell stress Read More »
Parabiosis and aging When it comes to anti-aging science, creepy meets cool with “young blood” in new blood mixing studies just published. The researchers report that blood from young animals literally makes older animals younger. That striking claim is made by both of two independent teams. They published high-profile papers that just came
Parabiosis and young blood anti-aging in mice Read More »
Whether STAP cells are real or baloney, much went wrong with the actual STAP cell Nature papers and the research reported in them by Obokata and her co-authors. Who is responsible for these two deeply flawed papers? I’m not sure we have enough information at this time to know definitively how responsibility/blame should be apportioned,
Did Obokata get a fair shake on STAP cell mess? Read More »
Stem cells on TV? About six weeks ago I had my head shaved to raise funds for childhood cancer research via the awesome St. Baldrick’s Foundation. It was an exciting week because by chance, I also was invited to be the guest on a Sacramento PBS TV discussion show called Studio Sacramento hosted by Scott
Dishing on stems cell on TV Read More »
The ultimate fate of the two Nature STAP cell papers remains in troubled limbo. One of the senior STAP cell authors, Dr. Sasai, held a news conference yesterday in Japan that included a call for the papers to be retracted. He was variously quoted as believing in STAP cells or alternatively as just thinking it
Lessons from STAP cell fiasco so far Read More »