This is a collection of the videos that I used in lab discussion section of the ethical issues in human embryonic stem cells research in the 2014 BIOL36701 Principles Development at Purdue University. 1. An introduction to stem cell – A stem cell story 2. Are embryos persons? 3. A question of balance? 4. How […]
An interesting study have reported a way that may potential help people who suffer from spinal cord injury. From the New York Times, “In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries“: Rats with a spinal cord injury that left their hind legs completely paralyzed learned to walk again on their own after an intensive training […]
In my last post, I provided several links to general introductions of stem cells. In this post, I will share several documentaries that show how bad people are taking advantage of desperate patients who have heard stem cells therapy may give them a last hope. II. Desperate patients and people who take advantage of their […]
Thursday, February 23, 2012
There is an interesting news article “Printing Muscle” from Technology Review about using 3-D printers to print muscle cells so that they may assume a 3-D shape that resembles muscle fiber. The idea sounds interesting, because one can potentially print tissues or even organs that have complicated cellular composition in 3-D for regenerative medicine.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Over the years, I have been leading a discussion about the ethical and social issues of stem cells research in my class and have used a few useful videos on various aspects. You may find them useful too. I. Introduction to the topic “A Stem Cell Story” – a great introduction of human embryonic stem […]
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
From Washington Post: For the first time, an experimental treatment made from human embryonic stem cells has shown evidence of helping someone, partially restoring sight to two people suffering from slowly progressing forms of blindness. In short, the authors of this study that is just published in Lancet differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into […]
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Today there is an article published in CELL about the generation of chimeric monkey. Unlike the traditional way for generation of chimeric mouse for making transgenic animal that can utilize pluripotent stem cells or inner cell mass, the process in primates requires the usage of totipotent cells at a much earlier stage – 4-cell stage. […]
Friday, November 25, 2011
From Discover magazine: “Helpful Mouse Fetuses Naturally Send Stem Cells to Mom to Fix Her Damaged Heart” The punchline is When a pregnant mouse has a heart attack, her fetus donates some of its stem cells to help rebuild the damaged heart tissue. The original article is available here. Kara RJ, Bolli P, Karakikes I, […]
We have briefly touched the subject of stem cell research in the last journal club. The challenge of developing “stem cell” as a useful therapy is three fold: Turning the clock of a differentiated cell back to the very beginning. Guiding the resulting dedifferentiated “stem cells” or any kinds of “stem cells” to develop into […]