The CIRM Board is meeting today and will decide on its future Chair via an election. There are two candidates, Jonathan Thomas (nominated by Bill Lockyer, the California state treasurer) and Frank Litvack, nominated by state controller, John Chang. Thomas is described as a Bond financier, while Litvack is an L.A. cardiologist and businessman with […]
And the new leader of CIRM is… Read More »
There have been a lot of recent headlines about a report that it might be possible to grow human organs in pigs. Someone even proposed the crazy idea of using human iPS cells to make chimeric human/swing animals that contain certain human organs, which could then be harvested. To say this is a bad idea
Growing organs for transplants in swine: a pig in a poke? Read More »
How much would you pay for freedom from disease or disability? When I was a teenager, some friends started a peculiar discussion. The topic? How much would you pay if you could skip the next time you were supposed to throw up? How much would it be worth it to you to not barf your
How much would you pay not to barf? Read More »
Note that this post ¿Qué son las células madre? is one of our “Stem Cells Not Lost in Translation” series. You can see the full 2020 series of our stem cell white paper in 34 languages here. ¿Qué son las células madre? El cuerpo humano contiene cientos de diferentes tipos de células que son importantes
¿Qué son las células madre? Read More »
One of the commenters on this blog told me, in response to my post on the opponents of stem cell research, to “get a life.” What’s a “life” according to this guy? To me? To you? We all lead different lives and have different ideas about what is a valuable life. We all face different
CIRM announced two sets of awards today that both should make major impact including its first clinical trial via Geron and $38 million for 27 basic biology studies. First Clinical Trial. Today CIRM awarded $25 million to support Geron’s FDA-approved clinical trial for spinal cord injury. This is CIRM’s first award to a for-profit company
CIRM funds $25 million for Geron trial, $38 million for basic biology Read More »
When does politics trump hope? It seems all the time. I think politicians frequently take positions on science-related issues that they either don’t really believe or understand. Perhaps I’m wrong, but for example, I don’t believe that most national level Republican leaders oppose ES cell research. Most of us have either ourselves faced injuries or
Now and then we will revisit some of our most popular posts and/or posts with the most comments. One of the best: The Monster Tumor: What is a teratoma really? You can go to the link above to read the original post and comments but I’ve pasted the post itself below. In stem cell research
Greatest hits: What is a teratoma? Read More »
Imagine a tea party, where instead of tea, they were serving only Kool-Aid. Not only did you have to drink it, no questions asked, but you had to say it was tea. Despite the bright cherry red color, the unmistakable smell from the artificial flavoring, and maybe even the big Kool-Aid Pitcher symbol with the
Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Tea Party Read More »
The tragic 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis that hit Japan a few weeks ago are having lasting consequences not only for Japan, but also for the world via radiation. One area of particular concern is the radiation that has leaked and is continuing to leak from the damaged nuclear reactors. At this point, the radiation
A reality check on the radiation spreading across the globe Read More »