During the week as I’m doing other stuff I keep my eyes open for interesting things to read, including over the weekend about stem cell research, COVID, CRISPR, and more for The Niche weekly recommended reads. This week a lot was going as we updated The Niche site to our new theme and format. I […]
Recommended reads: jobs, FDA letter, & The Niche new look Read More »
Today’s post announces the winner of the 2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award. Since this is the inaugural year for The Screamers, I’m just going to give out one main award: Overall Worst Science Hype. Science Hype Award to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Remarkably, the winner of the overall The Screamers Award for Science Hype
2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award goes to Stephen Hahn Read More »
When my wife and I were expecting our first daughter way back in the nineties, we received a paper pamphlet about cord blood banking. Back then, I was a graduate student at UC San Diego School of Medicine working toward my Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology and my wife was in medical school at the time
Fact-checking, pros and cons of cord blood banking Read More »
Sometimes on The Niche or while teaching students as a professor here at UC Davis School of Medicine, I’ve been asked: What is a teratoma? Not all tumors are created equal and some like teratomas are particularly unusual. Exactly what is a teratoma tumor? Teratomas are germ cell tumors. What this means is that the
What is a teratoma tumor? Research & treatment Read More »
The paper of the week reports using base-editing, a kind of gene-editing, to reverse mutations associated with rapid aging syndromes, generally called progeria, but there are a lot of other interesting pubs to recommend for reading this week. I go over it all in this post. Gene-editing to fight premature aging syndromes In vivo base
Weekly reads & paper of the week: gene-editing vs. aging Read More »
Is a head transplant actually going to be an option for extending life or changing what it means to be human? What about brain transplants? Let’s lump head and brain transplants together. Any possibility of this happening in coming decades? How close are we to that reality in 2023? In today’s post I give an update.
Head transplant surgery update & fact check Read More »
The Niche has formed a Medical Advisory Board. Why? Because of the array of translational and medical potential related to stem cells and regenerative medicine. Also, because since so many readers of The Niche are patients curious about potential stem cell treatments. Such a medical board that also has bioethics expertise is more important than
Medical Advisory Board for The Niche Read More »
Approval of Prop 14 California last month to renew CIRM was one of the biggest state election developments of 2020. Yet it didn’t get much news coverage somehow. The exception is David Jensen over at California Stem Cell Report, who has been a great source of information about the various news surrounding Prop 14 and
Prop 14 California: Big Expectations for CIRM 3.0 Read More »
What to read when there are almost an endless number of stem cell and regenerative medicine pubs? Here are some suggestions including what I would say is a very unusual Nature paper on making egg cells from stem cells. If this could be done safely with human cells all the way to functional eggs, would
Recommended regenerative medicine reads: making eggs, retraction, freezing, more Read More »
Would you eat lab grown meat? Envision biting into a warm juicy burger with all the trimmings. Lab grown meat intro If you are a burger fan, your mouth may already be watering. Or maybe you prefer steak or bacon? If you are a vegetarian or animal welfare advocate, however, you might be rather disturbed
Not Old MacDonald’s Farm: is the future lab grown meat? Read More »