THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOCAST ON SPOTIFY Image of lung cancer When we think of lung cancer we typically tend to think it’s the end result of years of smoking cigarettes. But, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 10 and 20 percent of cases of lung cancer (20,000 … Continue reading Lung cancer, Sherlock Holmes and piano
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A rare chance to help those in need
Recently the CIRM Board voted to support the creation of a Rare Disease Advisory Council (RDAC) in California. An RDAC is an advisory body providing a platform for the rare community to have a stronger voice in state government. They address the needs of rare patients and families by giving stakeholders an opportunity to make … Continue reading A rare chance to help those in need
Building a new mouse, one stem cell at a time
Science is full of acronyms. There are days where it feels like you need a decoder ring just to understand a simple sentence. A recent study found that between 1950 and 2019 researchers used more than 1.1 million unique acronyms in scientific papers. There’s even an acronym for three letter acronyms. It’s TLAs. Which of … Continue reading Building a new mouse, one stem cell at a time
An off-the-shelf cancer killer
iPS Cell: Photo from the lab of Kathrin Plath at UCLA One of the hottest areas in cancer research right now is the use of CAR-T treatments. These use the patient’s own re-engineered immune system cells to target and kill the tumor. But the thing that makes it so appealing – using the patient’s own … Continue reading An off-the-shelf cancer killer
Clinical trials: separating the wheat from the chaff
What do you do when the supposed solution to a problem actually turns out to be a part of the problem? That’s the situation facing people who want to direct patients to scientifically sound clinical trials. Turns out the site many were going to may be directing patients to therapies that are not only not … Continue reading Clinical trials: separating the wheat from the chaff
The Stem Cellar 