by Paul Krzyzanowski | Jul 17, 2012
Faced with patent shortages to replace flagship products, Big Pharma is increasing investments in smaller biotech companies to capture innovations early. Most new companies wither and die if they run out of initial funds before they’re profitable. In biotech,...
by Holly Wobma | Jul 11, 2012
My guess…is an HSC (hematopoietic stem cell). Because although these cells aren’t known for their civil disobedience, they do have a certain knack for making people more tolerant. In fact, that’s why Dr. Megan Sykes, Director of the Columbia Center for Translational...
by Michelle Ly | Jul 4, 2012
With rain, rain and more rain in the forecast, I was more than happy to escape wet and dreary Vancouver and attend the 18th International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) annual meeting, which took place in Seattle, Washington last month. The weather was (slightly)...
by Lisa Willemse | Jun 29, 2012
With contributions from Michael Rudnicki. If you’re following recent announcements in the field, then you may know about the study published this week in Diabetes that details the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to reverse diabetes type 1 in a mouse...
by Angela C. H. McDonald | Jun 29, 2012
Pluripotency describes the potential of a stem cell to differentiate into any cell type in the body. Embryonic stem cells derived from the early pre-implantation embryo are pluripotent as well as their engineered counterparts, iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells)....
by Angela C. H. McDonald | Jun 26, 2012
Hiromitsu Nakauchi has a vision for regenerative medicine. In this vision, he sees a renewable source of human organs for transplantation that are grown within the bodies of farm animals. Here’s how it works: pluripotent stem cells would be injected into an early...
by Angela C. H. McDonald | Jun 7, 2012
Late in May, the Brampton Fire Department (just outside of Toronto) held a “boot drive” to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. My boyfriend who happens to be a firefighter tells me that boot drives are fairly common among Canadian fire departments. In fact, they are...
by Roshan Yoganathan | Jun 5, 2012
The last time I blogged here, I introduced the idea of using biomaterials to monitor and sense changes in various physiological environments. Having materials in the body that can do this allows for real-time feedback regarding changes in the body. The use of...
by Lisa Willemse | Jun 1, 2012
Who was it that said “there are no original ideas”? The same person, perhaps, that said “great minds think alike”? Last week, we initiated a stem cell definition challenge via Twitter, asking followers to send their answers in 140 characters or...
by Angela C. H. McDonald | May 29, 2012
Nanotechnology has been a buzzword in the medical technology community for some time. It is defined as the manipulation and use of microscopic structures at the molecular scale, generally 1-100 nanometres in size (1 nanometre is 1 billionth of a metre, which...
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