Right Turn: Are we getting any closer to a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease?

by Stacey Johnson | Sep 24, 2021

Let’s play a game. If you could choose, what would be your superpower? Invisibility is a popular one, as are super strength, the ability to read minds, and time travel (but we know that messing with time can be dangerous). This list of the best superpowers of all time...

Is being a woman in STEM like being a stem cell?

by Guest | Sep 16, 2021

Tannen Horber is a recent graduate from Ryerson University’s Master of Professional Communication program. Tannen is passionate about using communication strategies as a vehicle for social change and focused her Major Research Project (similar to a thesis) on the...

Right Turn: STEM internships, co-ops and jobs for students

by Stacey Johnson | Sep 10, 2021

Like everyone I know, I’m working from home. This means I’m far from the parades of brightly and uniformly-clad university students that I’m accustomed to hearing and seeing from my vantage point at the MaRS Centre, 10 floors above College Street in downtown Toronto....

Regenerative medicine news under the microscope – August 2021

by Lyla El-Fayomi | Sep 1, 2021

“Regenerative medicine news under the microscope” is a monthly feature highlighting big stories in stem cell research. I will sample the latest and greatest findings in recent press and package them into a single post. August was another packed month in regenerative...

Blog Carnival: Is aging reversible?

by Stacey Johnson | Aug 25, 2021

For this year’s blog carnival, I asked our illustrious group of bloggers, academics and thought leaders to discuss this statement by David Sinclair, a director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School: “Aging is far more...

Reversing aging: Not just a single system to consider…

by David Kent | Aug 25, 2021

For Signal’s annual blog carnival this year, we were asked to consider David Sinclair’s recent comments in the New York Times where he said “Aging is far more reversible than we thought.” As someone who has dedicated the better part of the last 20 years to studying...

New gene therapy shows promise, but is it enough to reverse aging?

by Tara Fernandez | Aug 25, 2021

The last few decades have seen a dramatic leap in life expectancies across developed countries—people are living longer than ever before, and the age of the centenarian could soon be upon us. For example, in the ‘70s Canadians lived an average of 72.7 years. Today,...

Thinking about longevity makes me feel old

by Michael May | Aug 25, 2021

In pondering David Sinclair’s statement “Aging is far more reversible than we thought,” I couldn’t help but reflect on how much our field has changed since I was in grad school. Alas, looking back that far makes me feel really old! My PhD in cell encapsulation focused...

Is aging more reversible than we thought?

by Guest | Aug 25, 2021

The short answer: It really depends on what we define as aging. Professor Fabio Rossi, University of British Columbia, is Director, Research in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Regenerative Medicine. He obtained his MD from his...

Right Turn: Singing for stem cell research

by Stacey Johnson | Aug 16, 2021

What does it take for a fundraising idea to succeed? In my view the following ingredients are necessary: an important cause that resonates with the public, an original fundraising idea that could be fun, challenging, embarrassing or all three, and celebrity...