Walking back the hype?
A recent (11/9/10) New York Times article is notable in that it represents a rare instance in which the mainstream media seems to be walking back some of the hype that has surrounded human embryonic...
View ArticleEthical Problems with Adult Stem Cell Research?
Using a rather unusual approach to address the inherent ethical issues surrounding destructive human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR), Dr. Insoo Hyun, director of the Case Western Reserve Stem Cell...
View ArticleNew Advances
An article in the current issue of the New Scientist focuses on some recent – and major – developments in the both real and potential therapeutic benefits from stem cells. “Stem cell therapies ready...
View ArticleThe Spinning Never Stops
please note: this blog was originally posted on 6/21/11 The National Science Foundation (NSF) on June 10 issued a press release calling attention to a study the NSF funded on stem cell research and...
View ArticleAdvances in Diabetes Research -- without hESCs
Prominent foundations for diabetes research, led by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, have long been leading advocates for human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR), giving scant attention to...
View ArticleNew Hope for Treating Kidney Disease
Two recent studies have been published which once again highlight the vast potential of induced pluripotent stems cells (iPSCs) to benefit patients, this time patients with kidney disease. Both...
View ArticleScientific Sense and the Sense of Propriety
A student who was doing a project on stem cell research emailed DNH a series of questions, one of which was “Is there any scientific reason to not continue with stem cell research?”It seems like a...
View ArticleActions Speak Louder Than Words
Late August saw another round of grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).CIRM, you may recall, was established by a voter-approved referendum in 2004, with a $3 billion...
View ArticleAre they really still bothering with That?
In 2007, the world was introduced to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).With this breakthrough, Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) -- more commonly known as cloning -- suddenly looked to be the...
View ArticleSimpler, Better
The New Scientist recently ran a rather remarkable editorial, “In praise of stem cell simplicity.”“We should keep all avenues of stem-cell research open but be grateful when simpler alternatives...
View ArticleAn Era Ends Before It Even Begins
To paraphrase an oft-cited verse of T.S. Eliot’s, “this is the way the experiment ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”The experiment was Geron’s highly touted clinical trial using human embryonic...
View ArticleCaveat emptor
A recent AP report looks at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) halfway through its ten year term and asks “is it still relevant?”The report bluntly notes:“The taxpayer-funded...
View ArticleA Trend Continues...
With its recent round of grants, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) continues a trend begun several years ago now – increasing support for non-embryonic stem cell research and...
View ArticleBetter Late Than Never
Like CIRM, others are rethinking all the hype for hESCR and coming to realize that the real promise of stem cell research in all probability lies elsewhere, in adult and other non-embryonic avenues.For...
View ArticleZero Interest, No Withdrawals
In the classic musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” the Roman slave Pseudolus tries to convince his master to free him by urging: “Be the first, start a trend!”Well, a...
View ArticleAnother First
This blog has on several occasions noted how the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) – established primarily to fund human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR)—has instead in recent...
View ArticleContinuing to Ignore Their Own Advice -- Despite Continued Advances
A study in the current issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicinereports the use of neural stem cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPScs) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS,...
View ArticleWatch What I Do...
With its most recent round of grants– the first for 2013 – the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) continues its transformation from being one of the world’s leading funders of human...
View ArticleFollow the Money...
As this blog has previously reported (here, here, and here), the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has over the years been steadily moving away from its founding mission of giving...
View ArticleObsolete from the Start
The Washington Postgave a ringing endorsement to the recent news that scientists had succeeded once again in creating cloned human embryos and then destroying them for their stem cells (about one year...
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