Many Eyes Visualizations: FDA Application Approvals 2000-2008

Take a look at the FDA Application Approvals 2000-2008 visualization (created by user mktlgcs) over at IBM’s Many Eyes to get an aerial view on the US. pharmaceutical industry.

Golden day for 23andMe: Time’s 2008 Invention of the Year

This is a golden day for 23andMe despite all crisis worries:

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) October 30, 2008 — TIME Magazine announced today that the Personal Genome Service™ from 23andMe, Inc. has been named 2008′s Invention of the Year. 23andMe was chosen as the year’s most significant invention for its exceptional work in making personal genomics accessible and affordable.

From the industrial point of view what are the components of success here besides the obviously good team:

- mission: big, Google-sized mission: revolution of health care by personal genetic information as the source of upcoming personalized medicine

- biotechnology: based on the highest available technology platforms in microarrays (Illumina) (watch out, next gen sequencing is in the corner!)

- capital investment and network effect: I can only repeat myself:  23andMe is probably the most well-connected and backed startup in the history of Silicon Valley.(photo: happy 23andMe founders and early customers)

- information technology the cool and user-friendly factor of the browser based service is really amazing (in the past couple of weeks I demonstrated it to a bunch of people and even those were able to catch the essence of the available information who are older, web-unsavvy)

- simplicity of service: you just spit 2ml into a tube and FedEx it

- most aggressive marketing strategy based largely on the network effect among the power elite of the USA (and consequently, the world)

From the consumer point of view let me tell you 1 personal example of the lifestyle effect of the service:

Michael Kingsley on competitive, bitter, boomer longevity

Michael Kingsley – diagnosed with Parkinson disease at the age 42 – wrote an utterly fatalist, sad&straight and death conscious essay entitled Mine Is Longer than Yours on the last boomer game he calls competitive longevity published in the New Yorker. This piece is the dark counterpart of the recent Wired Kurzweil coverage on Mr. K.’s enormous efforts of being prospectively healthy as long as to reach next generation life extension technologies.

In contrast to that, Mr Kingsley, who underwent deep brain stimulation and lives with wires in the brain and batteries in the chest, seems to be somewhat restricted in the age of web to “switching your subscription from Newsweek to Time”. Still, “longevity is not a zero-sum game” – he admits.

Mr. Kingsley is pretty ignorant about any non-selfish motivation behind life extension (he is a political journalist by profession):

Off to Palo Alto, CA

Leaving New Orleans for the Bay Area for the next 3 days. I am visiting a quite enigmatic workshop in Palo Alto on Feb 22, then I am in San Francisco downtown on Friday evening and Saturday AM. If anybody would like to meet me, I am available there on Saturday near Union Square, just drop a mail.

Travel readings: Wired, March (not online yet, The Ruby on Rails coverage was interesting, but still hesitating whether to read Chris Anderson next airport book ad essay: Free or not, but definitely will read Joshua Davis story on Cougar Ace), Woody Guthrie: Bound for glory

Also a Wired recommendation: How to fly through the airport security in a dignity safe way: laceless shoes and holeless socks.

United State of California: buy bonds in stem cell research

In the unique state of California there is now an offer for individuals to place orders from October 3 during a $250 million sale of state debt to fund embryonic stem-cell research. The minimum bet is $5,000 and over 1 million you need special permission (just like buying more than 2 iPhones in the early days). That is unique. But wait…

“Of the $250 million issuance, $200 million will fund stem cell research and roughly $45 million will cover the cost of issuing the debt and retiring bond anticipation notes sold while the stem-cell measure was being contested in court.”

Links:

Reuters: Individuals get first dibs on Calif. stem-cell debt

California State Treasurer

California Stem Cell Report: Attention Stem ‘Cellists:’ Buy Your Bonds Now

“Mitochondrial Oasis Effect”: fasting => NAD+ up in mitos => cell survival

Quick storytelling through citations (alert from Jim Hardy, thanks):

Cell: Nutrient-Sensitive Mitochondrial NAD⁺ Levels Dictate Cell Survival

A major cause of cell death caused by genotoxic stress is thought to be due to the depletion of NAD⁺ from the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Here we show that NAD⁺ levels in mitochondria remain at physiological levels following genotoxic stress and can maintain cell viability even when nuclear and cytoplasmic pools of NAD⁺ are depleted. Rodents fasted for 48 hr show increased levels of the NAD⁺ biosynthetic enzyme Nampt and a concomitant increase in mitochondrial NAD⁺. Increased Nampt provides protection against cell death and requires an intact mitochondrial NAD⁺ salvage pathway as well as the mitochondrial NAD⁺-dependent deacetylases SIRT3 and SIRT4. We discuss the relevance of these findings to understanding how nutrition modulates physiology and to the evolution of apoptosis.

Scientific American: Eat (Less) to Live (Longer)

Researchers report in the journal Cell that the phenom is likely linked to two enzymes—SIRT3 and SIRT4—in mitochondria (the cell’s powerhouse that, among other tasks, converts nutrients to energy). They found that a cascade of reactions triggered by lower caloric intake raises the levels of these enzymes, leading to an increase in the strength and efficiency of the cellular batteries. By invigorating the mitochondria, SIRT3 and SIRT4 extend the life of cells, by preventing flagging mitochondria from developing tiny holes (or pores) in their membranes that allow proteins that trigger apoptosis, or cell death, to seep out into the rest of the cell.

“We didn’t expect that the most important part of this pathway was in the mitochondria,” says David Sinclair, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a study co-author. “We think that we’ve possibly found regulators of aging.”

And last, the interesting personal background of the principal investigator David A. Sinclair (see also: Resveratrol goes to the clinic: a Pulitzer for David Stipp!) from the recent Technology Review portrait, The Enthusiast:

Sinclair says his bravado and drive come from his grandmother Vera, who fled to Australia in the wake of the failed 1956 revolution in her native Hungary. Her son, David’s father, changed the family name from Szigeti. “My grandmother is the black-sheep rebel of the family,” he says. “She gave birth to my dad at age 15 in 1939 – imagine the scandal then – and has lived with natives in New Guinea and eaten human flesh,among other things. She once got in trouble with the police for being the first person to wear a bikini on a Sydney beach. She’s a 60s bohemian who helped raise me and taught me how to think differently and question dogma.”

Reconfigure the NIH!

Although I have no time now to meditate on NIH policies (I must take care of my cells), but I spread this package from Tom further, as the timing seems good, especially what concerns stem cell research. 4 rules (1 abandoned by me), and 1 copy/paste.

1. Include in your post the links to the NIH RFI and the comments page.

2. Include the list of six topics the NIH wants information about.

Challenges of NIH System of Research Support
Please describe any specific challenges presented by NIH’s support of biomedical and behavioral research such as the current array of grant mechanisms, number of grants awarded per investigator, and the duration of grants.

Challenges of NIH Peer Review Process
Please describe any specific challenges presented by the current peer review process at NIH.

Solutions to Challenges
Please concisely describe specific approaches or concepts that would address any of the above challenges, even if it involves a radical change to the current approach.

Core Values of NIH Peer Review Process
Please describe the core values of NIH peer review that must be maintained or enhanced.

Peer Review Criteria and Scoring
Are the appropriate criteria and scoring procedures being used by NIH to evaluate applications during peer review? If not, are there changes in either that you would recommend?

Career Pathways
Is the current peer review process for investigators at specific stages in their career appropriate? If not, what changes would you recommend?

3. Comment on one or more of these issues. Reconsider the stem cell grant system completely.

4. Decide who the next seven vectors will be for this meme. Sorry, I don’t.

Moving to New Orleans, starting a new life…and finding an apartment

I’ve already made some hints here, but now it is “official”: we (the new family) are moving to New Orleans on the 16th, June and I start my first postdoc job in a terrific laboratory I’ve already visited back in March.

We have only one problem left: finding a proper appartment in New Orleans from the next week. My main source here is: Mapskrieg, New Orleans, that is Craigslist combined with Google Maps: but at that point I really need personal advices.

So if anyone out of the readers has an irresistible apartment offer, or a good apartment tip please do not hesitate to contact me at [attilacsordas][at][gmail.com]

20 medical enterprises out of 100 fastest growing tech companies in 2007

Check out Business 2.0′s 100 fastest growing tech companies and read the excellent little summaries on the first 25 out of which 5 are medical related. In regenerative medicine LifeCell has a high position with competitors like Genentech (here think about the recent 23andMe story), Amgen Inc, Gilead Sciences.

Rebuilding mentality at Tulane University, New Orleans

When Hurricane Katrina came in, many researchers left Tulane University. Many efforts have been made since then to reestablish the strong academic research community. These are exactly the times, when new people with new drives enter.

The following sentences are from the letter of Laura S. Levy Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Senior Vice President for Research at Tulane University published In Science 20 April 2007 issue with the title A Thank You from Tulane University

“It has been 19 months since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coastline, causing widespread destruction and prolonged flooding in New Orleans. Gulf Coast institutions continue to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane, but great progress has been made in reestablishing a vibrant competitive research community. At Tulane University, we have experienced a level of rebound and renewal beyond our expectations. I write to express gratitude to the academic community for the strong support that we received both during and after the storm.”

Picture: My shot of the Mississippi River from the height of Jackson Square.

U.S. trip is over

Stem Cell Therapy Market, US, 2005-2016: do you believe this?

This extrapolation is from the inforich and insider Stem Cell Market Analysis Fact Sheet of the 2nd Annual Stem Cell Summit, February 12-13 at San Diego, happening now.

Other important facts concerning the Stem Cell Therapy Market in the U.S.:

Hey Al Gore: switch to life extension, aging is a more inconvenient truth

Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, a movie-long effective presentation on climate change and crisis has made him the chief environmental evangelist of U.S. Incorporation. (I liked that he is doing his Keynotes himself, my Apps.) Now I have a better offer for Al Gore: be the first networking-presentation man of healthy life extension and an official aging crisis oracle. The facts are given, and the truth is unfortunately more inconvenient, specially from the mouth of a Baby Boomer. More inconvenient because unlike weather it is something that concerns our very physical make-up. But the technologies are within range.

Here is a not very well known Al Gore documentary made by Spike Jonze himself. Part 1:

and here comes part 2:

Whatbox, Upper Lost Side, Stem Cell Connect-icut (weekend back links)

Links I enjoyed recently all from mainstream media:

San Fransisco Chronicle: THE LOST TAPES Conversations tape-recorded in the early years with Google’s founders illuminate how their actions forged the growth of a Silicon Valley giant via Philipp Lenssen’s blog.

New York Magazine: The Death of (the Idea of) the Upper East Side by Jay McInerney via random choice at Borders‘ Starbucks in Cambridge (see Photo Booth picture), while drinking a Venti Gingerbread Latte.

The New York Times: Connecticut Takes a Lead in Stem-Cell Research Aid via gmail from Anna.

Quotes from the articles:

San Fransisco Chronicle: Question: What other names were considered? Sergey Brin: I think the previous contender to that was called the “Whatbox,” which would have been OK. But then we decided that “Whatbox” sounded like “Wetbox,” which sounded like some kind of a porn site or something, and we decided to stay away from that. Actually the old version of the system was called Backrub. That was because our technology had to do with looking at the link structure of the Web and looking at the backlinks — which pages link to what pages. So Backrub was sort of an immature technology and we turned the idea of looking at backlinks into a search engine.

JoVE stats: blogosphere and Nature News traffic before official launch

The first official issue of the new biological video protocol site JoVE or Journal of Visualized Experiments will be available today 11 pm EST, November 30, 2006. The graph shows November traffic in term of unique visitors, first 2.5 weeks mainly uploaders, authors, editors and editors’ friends used the page, from 17th there was a mild scientific blogosphere coverage, like Pimm, Blog around the clock and Easternblot, and from 24th, November, it was the Nature News article (no longer available, only to subscribers) aided by blogs, that generated the heaviest traffic, that led even to a server change.

Moshe Pritsker, founder and editor of JoVE says: “The first launch means more organized format (articles by categories), certain dates of issue. Later we plan to increase the qualities of the video-articles. The idea is to create a scientific publication with all the characteristics of publication, to avoid the Youtubish comparison, while remaining flexible. The site will have a different design and more video-articles, including ones from famous ES cell labs.”

Thanks Moshe for the data.

More on science video protocols: Science: video protocols can help to share the tacit dimension, Early science protocol video: OpenWetWare Drosophila CHiP

hESCs derived from single blastomere by Lanza et al.: second trial in Nature with success

In science you can always correct yourself. In stem cell research it is of utmost importance to correct what you’re claiming, if you’ve claimed it not accurately enough before. Now in November 23 Nature magazine the Lanza group has a corrected manuscript on Human embryonic stem cell lines derived from single blastomeres on the possibility to generate human embryonic stem cells from a single cell that is isolated from an in vitro eight-celled embryo during routine preimplantatation genetic diagnosis (PGD). So it is an ethically non-controversial way to collect human embryonic stem cells, although it is working only in the case of in vitro fertilized embryos. Safety concerns of the protocol are perturbations of genomic imprinting due to the longer time the embryo remains in vitro during the process. As Joe Leigh Simpson says in the News and Views commentary: “This work with human blastomeres follows a demonstration by the same group that ES cells can be derived from single mouse blastomere. In these earlier mouse experiments, an intact viable embryo developed that consisted of the seven remaining blastomeres; by contrast, in the work with human cells, multiple blastomeres were taken from the 8-cell stage and no embryos were allowed to remain in culture. This was a source of confusion in the earlier online publication.”

See also: Editor’s Summary, Bodyhack, New York Times

Valley Brats in Rolling Stone’s Tech Issue: trends in journalism (weekend off)

And now for something completely different! Sometimes life is just simply life for me without any extension. This is Life.exe. So at the weekends during the largely dead webtimes, I’ll blog about other things than stem cells, regenerative medicine, maximum life extension and biotech. This week offstory is a report, which shows the transformation of the now mainstream, once countercultural Rolling Stone magazine into a Wired-type Zeitgeist patterned techweb conglomerate. I bought the 16th November issue because it seemed like a Wired magazine by cover and content too: (inversely, look at the december Wired cover: it is Rolling Stone-like):

- coverboys and story are not the usual nice bodymaniac popceleb men&women but Colbert&Stewart

- blogs of musicians,

- long report on a radical idea by a planetary engineer to stop global warming,

- a big article with the title: The Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley.

That is about the Valley Brats, the hidden power clique of under 30 übergeeks in the Bay Area, like Firefox main creator Blake Ross,

Nature News on JoVE: is JoVE really the YouTube for life scientists?

Nature News has an article of the new Journal of Visual Experiments website, whereof Pimm had a story one week ago with the help of Moshe Pritsker, founder of the site. The title of the Nature News post: YouTube for test tubes, which sounds good really, but is problematic a little bit. In a way the YouTube analogy is true, the biologists can now upload their protocol videos on the site, and can watch it freely, and there is the exciting DIY possibility, but on the other hand JoVE is not YouTube at all: there is a strict submission process with clear policies to go through, which excludes junk, and you cannot embed the videos freely. The first aim of JoVE is to be useful for people in the lab, which is a scientific purpose. Entertainment is just after that. Good luck for any bioDIYers.

Maximum Life CEO David Kekich: the investment strategy of life extension

David A Kekich is a heavyweight venture capitalist and investment expert. In 1999, he founded the Maximum Life Foundation, a corporation dedicated to curing aging related diseases. His LIVES™ financial strategy will finance the research needed to profitably develop life extending technologies. Kekich, who is also a lifestyle life extensionist, and very aware of current technological possibilities, answered the Pimm blogterview questions:

1. What is the story of your life extension commitment? I have basically committed all my professional efforts to help reverse aging within the next 25 years. My commitment was a by product of watching my parents relatives slowly deteriorate and die off due to aging related conditions. Life extension was also a strong interest of mine since my late 20’s, about 35 years ago. My total commitment happened as a result of a productivity and goal reaching exercise designed to show how much productive time I had left to accomplish my goals. My conclusion was, I needed to live longer.

2. Is it a commitment for moderate or maximum life extension? Maximum

Maximum Life’s James Clement: what can a lawyer do for life extension?

James Clement is an attorney and serial entrepreneur. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Maximum Life Foundation which supports aging and life extension research with a mature and secure VC fund strategy (next blogterviewee, David Kekich, C.E.O. of MaxLife).

1. What is the story of your life extension commitment? I have been interested in life extension ever since I first learned about death as a child. During school, I was always more interested in science than any other subject; but my high-school chemistry teacher was a political activist and encouraged me to study law and change “the System.” Unfortunately, it did not occur to me that I could actually practice life-extension research until I was in law school in the 1980’s, and read Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw’s “Life Extension Handbook.” I continue to read constantly in diverse scientific fields, especially regarding anti-aging and life-extension, neurophysiology, artificial intelligence, and space. I take about 40 to 50 pills a day, mostly from the Life Extension Foundation, which I believe is the premier vitamin/supplement company in the U.S. I joined the Maximum Life Foundation about a year ago as its Chief Operating Officer, and help its Founder, David Kekich plan and implement strategies for the Foundation to help facilitate anti-aging research.

2. Is it a commitment for moderate or maximum life extension? I am definitely committed to maximum life extension. I appreciate the views of Hans Moravec and others, popularized by Ray Kurzweil in his book “The Singularity Is Near,” that technological change is happening at an exponential rate. While too many people think that super longevity won’t be practical during this century, I believe my generation of Baby Boomers will be the last humans to experience involuntary aging and death from old-age.

3. What is your favourite argument supporting human life extension?Not only will the suffering of disease and aging be alleviated, but human society will be transformed by continuous learning, and a deeper appreciation for the value of life (human and animal) and the environment in which we live.

Biological Video Protocols on JoVE: Online Journal of Visualized Experiments

At last there is an almost perfect solution for life scientists to share video protocols and insider tricks to learn techniques and repeat experiments properly. Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is a newly founded and FREE online research journal that publishes video-articles on biological experiments (video-protocols). It is an independent project by 2 people, Moshe Pritsker (postdoc at Harvard Medical School) and Nikita Bernstein (Web application developer). Moshe says: “As a biologist personally suffering from written “protocols”, I had this idea for some years, but couldn’t do it because was busy with my PhD studies at Princeton. Two months ago, Nikita and I have began implement it practically, as a research publication.” On JoVE Video-articles include step-by-step instructions on experiments, and short discussions by experts describing possible technical problems and modifications. JoVE employs the OPEN-SOURCE model:

Kevin Dewalt’s answers: technology professional, lifestyle life extensionist

Kevin Dewalt is an American technology professional, presently working at a VC. Kevin is a strong life extension supporter. We’ve met online at Baris Karadogan’s blog. I specially liked his “happy argument” for maximum life extension on the psychological level, see answer 3.

1. What is the story of your life extension commitment?

When I was 23 I discovered a book called “Optimum Sports Nutrition” by Dr. Michael Colgan. In it he presents arguments for lifestyle and nutrition changes that athletes could make to improve performance. The idea that changing my exercise, eating, or lifestyle habits could change my physical well being, health and longevity thrilled me and I began my quest. I began researching and learning about dietary supplements. At age 25 I became a vegetarian. At 26 I joined the Life Extension Foundation and have followed their recommended supplement scheme since. At 33 I began started a mild Calorie Restrition diet, lost 10 pounds and have remained on the diet. At that time I also began following the writing of Aubrey de Grey (blogterview here), Roy Walford, and others and realized that the only way I was going to be Father Time forever would be through significant advances in science.

2. Is it a commitment for moderate or maximum life extension?

John Cumbers’ DIY approach to life extension: personal genomics and synthetic biology

John Cumbers made the Drosophila CHiP protocol video. He is a graduate student at the Tatar lab in Brown University, USA. Below are his answers to the blogterview questions and through answer 5 you can take a fresh look at the bottom-up approach of synthetic biology.

2 more bloggers’ answers: Anne Corwin and Phil Bowermaster

The spectrum of the life extension blogterviewees is broad: scholars, activists, IT people, VC folks, … and is broadening further. Here are 2 more activists/bloggers who put their answers to their blog: Anne Corwin and the aphoristically dense Phil Bowermaster. Thanks for answering. I ‘d like to emphasize that I modified questions 4-5, and introduced a new one:

Election perspectives in tech support: New York City as California’s rival in stem cell billions?

Check this fresh Wired review about US Midterm elections’ effects on high-tech possibilities for the United States: In New York, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer‘s gubernatorial victory was no surprise, but it’s a big win for stem-cell research in that state. Spitzer wants to commit several billion dollars of the state’s money to the science. Link I’ve heard about only 1 billion.

Sand Hill Road Venture Capitalist about life extension as business

There was a very interesting comment dialogue last week apropos of Aubrey de Grey‘s TED talk, and the host was Baris Karadokan’s blog called From Istanbul to Sand Hill Road subtitled High-tech, venture capital, creativity and innovation. Here are some details. Link

storytelling idea source

North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, January, 2007

It’s time for you to register to the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, January 20, 2007, organized by BlogTogethter wiki. I hope that it will be a nice Unconference too.

The bioinformatics bet: what can IT folks do for life extension?

Briefly: A lot. As you might have noticed, for me as biotechnologist/life extensionist, the most important reference group is the group of IT people, because of the engineering approach, software-hardware tools, intuition concerning technology and funds. After Reason and Chris, our next answerer is Jim Craig, who published his answers here as a comment first by accident. This democracy of comments and reader generated contribution is so welcome. Jim is a lead architect and director of a software team, and the type of IT guy, whose interests can easily be as valuable concerning life extension as biotechnologists, and not exclusively in the long run.

1. What is the story of your life extension commitment?

I have adopted life extension as a hobby. I now study microbiology, proteomics and molecular design about 20 hours per week and plan to guide the next 20-40 years of my career through bioinformatics and eventually into de novo drug design with an emphasis on aging solutions.

2. Is it a commitment for moderate or maximum life extension?

maximum.

Blogterview with Ouroboros’ Chris Patil, II.: the technology of life extension

Here is Chris’ answer to question 4, for me it was the most important because of its critical edge. Question 2 was about moderate or maximum life extension commitment and the question below is not restricted to maximum LE and unlimited lifespan but includes modest trials too.

4. What is the most probable technological draft of human life extension, which technology or discipline has the biggest chance to reach it earliest?(regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, gene therapy, caloric restriction, bionics, hormones, antioxidants, …)

In a hundred years, we won’t be able to look back and answer that question in a clear way. People who are committed to extending their lifespans will have taken multiple strategies. One can’t point to a life and say, these ten years were from exercise but these five were from resveratrol.

I think the first really useful technological life extension will have a very familiar form, e.g., “take this pill and call me in fifty years when you’re still alive.” Drugs that activate sirtuins and related pathways are very promising (I can’t spill the beans but I saw some amazing data at Cold Spring Harbor suggesting that there are already several working drugs). Once we’re better able to get our brains around calorie restriction, I think that CR mimetics will be right behind the sirtuin-based drugs. To the extent that these sorts of drugs will help prevent acknowledged illnesses like Type II diabetes, there’s already a clinical indication for them, so they should sail through approval on that basis.

Rational Longevity: life extension as a project for critical thinkers

Anne Corwin, technological progressive from California wrote a nice philosophical essay, called What Is Meant By “Rational Longevity”, in which she delineates the territory of the new buzzword referring to clear critical principles:

What would happen if Bill Gates invested 3 billion dollars to embryonic stem cell research?

There is a dense comment debate on Bodyhack for more than a week concerning the electoral Missouri Stem Cell Hunter issue, celebs with ESC pro- or contra ads.
Here is an effective comment from today’s related post by the commenter named Orrin:

“I wonder what would happen if Bill Gates invested 2 billion dollars to embryonic stem cell research and just got people to shut up. I’m sure there would be those who accused him of murdering babies while others would say that is still isn’t enough money.“

Well, Bill Gates is now a full-time charity man, which makes him more attractive in the eyes of many people, comparing to the times when he was a chief technology officer or software architect at a company. It was in a William Gates III building, as I know from the the Google story, where the PageRank algorithm was born, for example. In the case of embryonic stem cell research, we do not really know the opinion of Mr. Gates, but I think this would be really a useful celeb opinion to know.

Interestingly the Gates Foundation has already put a little money, with 3 zero minus than 3 billion in embryonic research, but in China, not in the U.S.: Still, some billionaires have shied away from this science scrap. Bill Gates’ foundation, the largest in the world with $29 billion on hand, has put less than $2 million into research on human embryonic cells–at a lab at Peking University in China. Researchers there are implanting human cells in mice to look for better ways of making vaccines against aids and hepatitis C. A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation says the Peking researchers hit on the right idea; that the foundation hasn’t funded a single stem-cell test in the U.S., she adds, isn’t related to the anti-abortion fight.
So if Mr. Gates does agree with the purposes of embryonic stem cell research, than it is time to invest big bucks in it. Who knows, maybe this contribution could decide the debate in the U.S….

Stem Cells get viral and part of the pop culture: The Stem Cells – live

The term ‘Stem Cells’ eventually stepped out its scientific home and became the viral name of a music-performance group. Hear their Human Stem Cell Audio Therapy blabla from their website transmitted to audio by me via Odeo:

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/2234526/view]

Anyway, I offer the next music names for future generations: Tissue Engineers, DJ RegMed, MC Growth Factor, Mesenchymal RapStar, stem n bass….

Now back to my poster and the real human amniotic stem cells…

New England All-Stars Award goes to Advanced Cell’s Lanza

Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of Research and Scientific Development for Worcester-based Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), will be honored at the 11th annual Mass High Tech All-Stars Awards Networking Reception on Wednesday at the category biotechnology. Link
Lanza is a key person in American human embryonic stem cell technology. Some public rearguard actions of the ACT’s controversial Nature Publication on the derivation of hESCs from a single cell without destroying an embryo, can be found here and here. Main point is the possibility to generate human embryonic stem cells from a single cell that is isolated from an embryo during routine preimplantatation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
The award could be interpreted as an East Coast support for Lanza and co. arm-in-arm with embryonic stem cell research. Meanwhile parts of the ACT labs are now in California: “To accelerate its development programs, the article noted that ACT recently moved to California. If you’re going to survive you must be close to the capital,” said William Caldwell IV, CEO of ACT.

Image source

Stem cell-related videos: the sides of (how many) coins?

As time goes by stem cells not just become more and more political, but a part of pop culture beyond the scientific experiments.

First full-time biotech employee at Google BioLabs

Hello everybody, let me introduce myself: I am the first full-time biotechnologist at Google Inc. My job at Google is fascinating: I have to plan and build a comprehensive regenerative database/map of the complete human body which will be the input of the ultimate human regenerative software. It is so, because in the long run, Google Regeneration Clinic will open its doors to offer a continuous regeneration treatment for its patients, aka partial immortalization or pimm. No surprise, that my nickname here at G is: the Pimmer. The aim of regenerative medicine is to regenerate all tissues and organs of the human body with the help of stem cells’ regenerative potential. Theoretically, if all tissues and organs of an adult body were regenerated once, then it could be regenerated two and eventually n times. This technological possibility is called partial immortalization.

Even my bosses do not really understand how the continuous regeneration treatment will work, but they placed their confidence in me. Although not being biotechnologists, they caught the brand-new concept of regenerative medicine, the science and technology built around stem cells’ regenerative capacity: the aim here is to facilitate and amplify or simply replace the native regenerative potential of the organism, the targeted tissue or organ. Regmed does not care about the causes and the detailed effects of the injury, but about the replacement, and the renewal of the damaged function.
So I have the tremendous opportunity to build Google BioLabs and thanks to the cooperation with California Institute of Regenerative Medicine our new experimental lab is about to open. What we need: smart geek biotechers, engineers and 20 years of masturbatory intensity of concentration (the words of Michael Chabon) to fulfill the task. What we already have: the money, the most innovative corporate environment and the lifetime commitment.
Questions for the would-be Google BioLabs members (but I promise there won’t be 7 interviews for 14 hours with 28 Googlers):
1st With an ordinary FACS machine, how long does it take to count 10-100 trillion cells which is the order of magnitude of the human body?
2nd: Delineate a non-invasive method capable of counting so many cells within a day.
3rd Plan the algorithm of the consecutive order of a complete tissue and organ regeneration.

Brutal competition in stem cell research: Harvard fears

At 13th, October, a daylong event, the Stem Cell Leadership Summit Friday was organized by AAAS in Cambridge, US. Some quotes worth mentioning:

The controversial Lawrence H. Summers, former Harvard president: “we are not alone in seeing the enormous impact biomedical research in general, and stem cell science in particular, will have on the region and the nation. And the stakes here are very high. So make no mistake, there will be brutal competition. And there is much in which to take satisfaction. ...we not confuse a moment of leadership with enduring competitive strength.”

Early science protocol video: OpenWetWare Drosophila CHiP

One previous post of Pimm was about the advantages of online, open source-like science protocol videos. So thanks to Sri Kosuri, here is an early sample protocol movie (3 parts) made by John Cumbers on the preparation of fixed chromatin from Drosophila embryos to use the DNA in a genomic array technology, developed in Rob White’s Cambridge lab.

FDA Stem Cell Therapy Regulation: the Framework

Dina Gould Halme and David A. Kessler wrote an article, called FDA Regulation of Stem-Cell–Based Therapies in The New England Journal of Medicine. The key concerns are:

i., Stem-cell–based products as therapeutic agents are or could be: biologic products, drugs, devices, xenotransplantation products, human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products. Human cells, tissues, and cellular and tissue-based products is defined as “articles containing or consisting of human cells or tissues that are intended for implantation, transplantation, infusion, or transfer into a human recipient.”

ii., Donor’s risk of transmitting infectious or genetic diseases

iii., Contamination or damage risk of the cell or tissue processing: expansion or differentiation of the cells are minimal manipulations, nonhuman fetal calf serum as possible prion source, anymal feeder cells, karyotypic =genetic stability through passages,

iv., Cell types: purity, potency, characterization, the expression pattern of identifying markers

v. In vivo safety and efficacy: experiments in animal models, tumorigenicity

vi., Stem-cell–based products and gene therapy

Link

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Stem Cells’ growing role in U.S. politics: StemCandidates meet Pacman

John Hlinko, veteran internet grass-roots organizer has launched a website called StemCellCandidates to highlight – and facilitate donations for — the races in which the stem cell issue is most likely to tip the scales. Hlinko is also the man behind StemPac, a U.S. stem cell research supporting coaliton, which includes professional political consultants, scientists (for instance E.Y. Snyder, see previus post), patient advocates. Kristen Bodyhack Philipkoski wrote an interesting Wired piece about the topic: To be featured on StemCellCandidates, a candidate must first strongly support stem cell research. Second, they must be running against an incumbent who opposes stem cell research. Lastly, the pro-stem-cell candidate must have a chance at winning. Link

$2.9 million NIH Quantum Grant for Neuro-Vascular Regeneration to help stroke patients

For the first time Quantum Grant goes for international research initiative to regenerate damaged brain cells and blood vessels for the treatment of stroke which occurs when an artery in the brain is blocked. The three-year, $2.9 million grant, funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the NIH, will support research on neuro-vascular regeneration, which will make new brain tissues in the laboratory. The new brain tissue is planned to have its own blood supply to allow it to be placed into the damaged brains of stroke patients where it will provide a source of neural and vascular cells that will continue to develop and differentiate, repairing the injured tissue in the process. Main participants are: Karen Hirschi, deputy director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center within the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Jennifer West of Rice University, Department of Bioengineering, Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the division of developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Link

So this will mainly be a tissue engineering approach for brain regeneration, that is growing implantable brain tissue in vitro in a bioreactor with working blood vessels in it, which needs the combination of more then 2 differentiated cell types. Hard task. My questions: What kind of stem or progenitor cells will be the sources of neural cells? What is the planned volume of the tissue constructs? What type of neurosurgery is needed for a successful implantation?

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