Stem cell trip to Tulane University, New Orleans

Wow, I bought the flight tickets yesterday, so next week I’m visiting the Center for Gene Therapy in downtown New Orleans for a few days. I was invited to give a seminar there. Of course I’d like to be more than just a stem cell tourist in America’s Most Interesting City. New Orleans has a very unique history and present. Such a unique figure is Alejandro “Bloody” O’Reilly, who was the Spanish governor of Louisiana. The New Yorker Magazine has a special and terrific online daily column, the New Orleans Journal written by freelance journalist Dan Baum, from which we can gain deep insights about the ins and outs of the city. During the trip preparations I rewatched David Lynch’s Wild at Heart because of the New Orleans scenes and there is one catchy old soundtrack song performed by these guys:

Also a more authentic version of this song with John Lee Hooker and the same Van Morrison