Hi everyone,

Nature Reports Stem Cells just published a couple articles I’d like some feedback on. One explores the scientific landscape after Obama’s executive order and the remaining problems facing ES stem cell research. The other one asks whether the US should adopt a UK regulatory structure for embryo research.

I’d like to know what you think of these but also, more importantly, how you’ll be affected by the lifting of the funding ban. Who watched the speech? Anyone writing Challenge Grants this weekend?

Monya

PS1: I think a bunch of you already know me, but I’m the editor of Nature Reports Stem Cells, a free online publication. Like Nature Network, it’s one of NPG’s online ventures, albeit on a much smaller scale. I figure this forum is a resource I should access more often.

PS2: if you want some hard science, here’s this:
Efficient ES cell differentiation: the right tweak at the right time
Strategies for moving embryonic stem cells toward pancreatic or blood cells (Nature Chemical Biology by Melton and Cell Stem Cell by Bhatia)

Aberrant as well as embryonic pathways in leukaemic stem cells
Two papers point to how cancer cells go astray (PNAS by Weissman and Cell Stem Cell by McCleary)

Embryonic stem cells have their own way to deal with viruses
A new zinc finger protein, perhaps the first of many, silences integrated viruses
(Nature by Goff)