Cell Therapy Deal Review: March

by Mark Curtis | Apr 25, 2016

Welcome to your Cell Therapy Deal Review for the month of March. Cellectis continues to differentiate through a collaboration with MabQuest. PCT formed a partnership with Japanese conglomerate Hitachi. Kite partnered with Roche’s Genentech on a program for lymphoma....

Right Turn: Autism stem cell research could use a boost

by Stacey Johnson | Apr 22, 2016

While I’m sure news about autism spikes in April during the annual awareness campaign, I doubt autism is absent from the news very often. Whether parents and advocates are lobbying for more services and funding, experts and non-experts are arguing over whether...

Athletes embrace stem cell therapy, for better or worse

by Guest | Apr 18, 2016

Randi Druzin is an author and journalist based in Toronto. She has worked at the CBC and several other major media outlets, and has written for publications such as The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. She has also written three books. Randi first learned about...

Right Turn: The wild, wacky world of animals and regenerative medicine

by Stacey Johnson | Apr 15, 2016

The picture to the right is of my cat Chloe, all dressed up for her debut on Signals. Amazingly, Franklin West (University of Georgia) thinks domesticated cats (Chloe!) are the ideal vessel for saving big cats of the endangered species kind. The idea is to collect...

Mental constructions: a 3D printing approach to making miniature neural circuits

by Holly Wobma | Apr 11, 2016

“You are your synapses.” [Joseph LeDoux]. I first came across this quote while working in a neurophysiology lab after my freshman year of undergraduate studies. To this day, I am amazed by its simple eloquence and the grandeur of its implications. Indeed, the idea...

Right Turn: A science book lover’s dream list

by Stacey Johnson | Apr 8, 2016

I’ve written about the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA) before, in a post about good stem cell books for kids. Well, CSWA has just released its Short Lists in the 2015 Science in Society Book Awards competition, and with CBC’s Canada Reads having just...

A double duty scaffold for cell delivery to the brain

by Samantha Payne | Apr 7, 2016

Neurodegenerative diseases of the brain, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, are a leading cause of disability in Canada, but despite the significant burden on patients, caregivers and the health-care system, we still lack a cure. An active area of research for these...

Right Turn: The wait is over

by Stacey Johnson | Apr 1, 2016

For nearly 2 million people, the restless nights, anxious days, over-caffeinated spiral is almost over. On April 14th, Orphan Black returns with its fourth season. A few Christmases ago, I compiled a list of television shows and movies that feature stem cells in a...

Controversial “three-person embryos” should be approved for clinical trials in the U.S.

by Nicole Kuchinsky | Mar 31, 2016

Stem cell technology and reproductive medicine have always been tightly linked. After all, the early embryo is essentially a ball of stem cells. For this post, I will delve into a hot topic in reproductive medicine—three-person embryos. Similar to what we have seen...

Right turn: Who said science and creativity had to be mutually exclusive?

by Erin Sugar | Mar 25, 2016

Beautiful things can happen when you combine science, art and technology. (Think STEAM!) Contemporary dancer Paige Fraser has teamed up with Intel to create an artistic piece that uses 18 Intel RealSense cameras to display a whimsical 3D reflection that mimicks her...