#stap cell

Harvard Sued Over Stem Cell Paper Misconduct Investigation

Brigham and Women’s Hospital cardiac stem cell researcher Piero Anversa along with collaborator Annarosa Leri (pictured) are suing both the hospital and Harvard Medical School over a misconduct investigation.

Boston Globe reporter Carolyn Johnson has been covering Anversa and for background on this new lawsuit she wrote:

“Work overseen by Dr. Piero Anversa, a professor of anesthesia at the…

New Message from Wakayama on STAP retraction & origin of STAP-SC

I have been corresponding now and then with Dr. Teru Wakayama about the ongoing STAP situation. He asked me to pass along the following message from him for clarification on the STAP Nature paper retraction and the origin of the STAP stem cells (STAP-SC).

I would like to take this opportunity to explain the reason for certain differences between the retraction statement in the published paper…

Poll indicates that STAP cells are stem cell story of 2014 so far

What’s the biggest stem cell story of the year so far?

I did a poll asking just that and the result so far overwhelmingly indicate that respondents believe the STAP cell scandal to be the top stem cell story of 2014 about half way through the year.

You can see the results from the 210+ respondents so far above.

In 2nd place is SCNT-based human therapeutic cloning followed by young blood…

Does Europe Know Something About STAP Cells That We Don’t? Latest Poll Results

For more than 3 months I’ve been doing a tracking poll on the sentiments of the readers of this blog about STAP stem cells. The question is “Do you believe in STAP Stem Cells?”

The result are summarized in the graph above.

The latest poll results from period #9 are somewhat of a surprise.

The overall trend for Poll #9 on STAP stem cells would seem to indicate a significant shift toward a more…

Google Shows Us Crazy STAP Cell Dichotomy

What the heck?

A recent Google search for STAP cells yielded these two adjacent, completely contradictory results sourced from two Obokata mentors (see image above) by the same newspaper less than 1 day apart.

That certainly clears things up on the STAP cell front, huh?

Obokata news conference: thoughts, questions & open discussion

Dr. Haruko Obokata held a news conference today in Japan.

It was very painful to watch.

I’m a softy so at moments I felt somewhat sad for her as I watched, but as a scientist I have to say the STAP situation has been very bad for the stem cell field.

And I’m also pretty sure that this press conference did not do the stem cell field or anyone else any good including Obokata.

She first read from a…

Wild History of VSELs Predict Future of STAP Cells?

Very small embryonic-like stem cells aka VSELs are reported to be tiny adult stem cells that are pluripotent…..or….. non-existent depending on whom you talk to most recently or which paper you just read.

These very controversial cells (which I once compared to the Sasquatch) have a wildly fluctuating history with their existence on multiple occasions apparently being proven and then later…

Putting Dr. Lee’s ResearchGate STAP Attempt Result–Hyped by Media–in Proper Context

Yesterday was a crazy day for the STAP cell situation. We had RIKEN releasing a scathing internal investigatory report and then some folks in the media got all worked up about a single PCR assay result that Dr. Ken Lee posted on ResearchGate. Some of the reporters/science writers hyped their headlines/articles on this situation as though STAP cells had been proven real. On the other end of the…