Friday, November 06, 2015

The Long-overdue Death of Embryonic Stem Cell Hype

The Hype over Embryonic Stem Cell Research Dies Not with a Bang but a Whimper

Science and scientists are subject to hype just like everyone else.

2 comments:

John Farrell said...

He writes, "The controversy ran out of steam almost immediately after Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka developed induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in 2007, a feat for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. His cells apparently have all the potential of embryonic cells without the ethical baggage. Leading scientists quietly stopped working with hES cells and moved to the new cells."

Apparently he is unaware that scientists working with iPSCs still rely on hESCs in order to test and ensure their viability. Yamanaka has said as much on several occasions, and repeated it to me when I asked him about it at the ISSCR in 2013.

Lawrence Gage said...

Thank you for the information, John! This could be the case of "hype about hype." Could you tell me more about how "scientists working with iPSCs still rely on hESCs in order to test and ensure their viability"? How exactly do they need to use them for these purposes?