Lisa Willemse
Lisa is a science communicator with 15+ years' experience in the fields of regenerative medicine, child development and technology. She launched this blog (first as the Stem Cell Network Blog) in 2009, and served as co-editor until April 2015. She is currently the Director, Communications & Public Affairs for the Stem Cell Network, and has contributed to Motherboard, Science Borealis and the Genome Alberta and Canadian Blood Services blogs. Follow her on Twitter and Medium @WillemseLA.
Posts by: Lisa
Right Turn: Bench to bedside goes interactive
. This is an anniversary celebration of sorts. One year ago (almost to the day), EuroStemCell and OptiStem released the graphic story From Hope to Hype and I recall being amazed: not just at the beauty and integrity of the finished product, but at the immense creativity of the project as a whole. Explaining stem […]
Right Turn: Feathers as an example of stem cell complexity
Pea Hen Feather. Credit: Bill Gracey The arrival of summer’s songbirds to much of Canada over the past month makes this a fitting time to talk about feathers. Coincidentally, a paper was released in Science in late April that revealed how stem cells function to create an incredible array of colours and patterns in bird […]
Right Turn: A tail is a tail. Or is it?
. Entire limb or organ regeneration is held out to be the holy grail of regenerative medicine. As an example, we look to certain reptiles such as salamanders, geckos and lizards, which have the incredible ability to regrow limbs or tails. Lots has been written on what we currently know about limb regeneration and whether […]
Rush to publish and the repercussions of carelessness in science
Co-authored with Dr. Zubin Master, Assistant Professor at the Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College and Research Associate at the University of Alberta’s Health Law and Science Policy Group. In the current discussion about the now controversial SCNT human cloning paper by Shoukhrat Mitalipov et al., much has already been said of the reported errors that resulted […]