A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel led by Jacob Hanna reports today near perfect reprogramming efficiency to make induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by eliminating a single factor called Mbd3 from the cellular equation. On first glance, the Nature article (Rais, et al.) seems to be all about boosting cellular reprogramming efficiency to close […]
100% reprogramming efficiency reports Jacob Hanna Read More »
Need a new liver, pancreas, or other vital organ, then I’ll 3D print one right up for you…that is in about 10 years. My intern Lakshmi did a great job on her guest piece last week on the promise of 3D printing in stem cell-based bioengineering including organ and tissue production. It’s an incredibly exciting area of
Want to 3D Print Yourself a New Organ? Key Challenges Read More »
When it comes to science communication or “scicomm”, how are scientists doing these days? Scientists want to stay up to speed on all the latest technological developments whether it is new equipment or new methods. To not stay up to speed on these techno innovations would be a huge mistake as a scientist. You might
How to avoid being an anachronism on scicomm Read More »
¿Qué son las células madre? What does this mean? What are stem cells is ‘¿Qué son las células madre?’ in Spanish (2024 update: note that this post is part of our stem cells not lost in translation project: please see here for 34 other languages. This post also addresses another common question, “what are stem
¿Qué son las células madre? Read More »
Let’s putting on our “thinking caps”….er, extra brains, get our geek on, and have some fun imagining where stem cell technology may lead us in the coming century. Unhappy with the one brain you have? Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a 2nd one too? A new one? Researchers have grown mini brain-like structures from
What would you do with an extra brain? Read More »
Celulas Madres: Una Guia para el Conocedor es un Nuevo excitante libro que lleva a el lector adentro del mundo de celulas madres guiado por el internacionalmente experto en celulas madres el Dr. Paul Knoepfler. Celulas madres estan catalizando una revolucion en la medicina. El libro tambien destaca el caliente y excitante debate en el
Celulas Madres: Una Guia para el Conocedor Read More »
There is a lot of talk about cloning celebrities so could we be seeing John Lennon again in the form of a clone? If a Canadian dentist named Michael Zuk has his way, the late Beatle may be back. In his quest to get back Lennon, Zuk reportedly purchased an old molar that once had
Imagine Cloning John Lennon From Old Molar Read More »
Was Einstein wrong on his definition of insanity? “Insanity”, said Einstein, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But in science, how sane is it to expect experiments to give precisely the same results? How big a problem is irreproducibility in science? Experiments on that question have given variable
Was Einstein Wrong About Insanity? Read More »
Stem cell & cellular medicine biotech, Osiris, reported a major success today with its cell-based treatment of Diabetic foot ulcers. The data are about as good as it gets. The company’s Grafix product for the ulcers was three times more effective than the control. A cross-over phase where those given the control were switched to
Osiris success with Diabetic foot ulcers is a giant step Read More »
Comments are encouraged. Those comments submitted to this blog will be posted at the sole discretion of the editor. Comments also may be edited for content. For example, comments cannot include person attacks, promotional material for stem cell clinics, or other inappropriate content. Commenters are encouraged to use their real names, but anonymous comments are