From the Mail Online:
“Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood.
It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own.
But it raises a number of moral and ethical [...]

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I was stunned last week when I saw many prominent tech VCs and CEOs from Silicon Valley sign letters endorsing the FCC’s move towards Net Neutrality, since, if the rule making goes ahead, it will mean regulating the Internet. I happen to know a bunch of these folks, so I decided to call them [...]

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This is a fabulous demonstration of how stem cells were used to grow cheek bones for a boy born without them due to a genetic condition.
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As with many stem cell procedures, the stem cells were injected into a scaffold (in this case donated dead bone) and the cells brought the bone back to life. [...]

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Story in Science Daily and Science Alert, among others. Hat tip to James Clement to posting this on FB.
“A major breakthrough study, published 15 October in Nature, has provided a complete roadmap of the human epigenome and has major implications for the treatment of human diseases and development of stem-cell based regenerative medicine.
An epigenome [...]

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“I could make a mouse that has your liver. That’s incredibly valuable,” said stem cell researcher Stephen A. Duncan (at the Medical College of Wisconsin).
That’s an impressive claim, and it’s based on newly released data from his lab that shows the ability to turn human skin cells into liver cells. Read the [...]

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Cross-posted from H+:
This is an interesting piece in the BBC about how complex tasks enhance the structure of the brain. Time to take up juggling!
Hat tip to Ramez Naam who posted this earlier today on Facebook.

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As many of you know, I am on the board of directors of H+. We re-worked some things with our blog recently, so you will see me posting and cross-posting between here and there more often.

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Researchers led by Irina Conboy at UC Berkeley have completed some very interesting research on human muscle. Essentially, they found that it is possible to regenerate old human muscle by activating an enzyme called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). MAPK regulates the activity of an adult stem cell receptor called Notch, which triggers growth [...]

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This is an interesting piece in the NYT on caloric restriction research in humans. The researchers are studying biomarkers in humans who commit to caloric restriction for two years. It would take too long to do a longitudinal study on humans, so this is the next best thing. Surprisingly, the participants actually [...]

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I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, but I thought I would also blog about this WSJ story since they have a nice graphic showing how telomeres work. One of the three winners of the Nobel prize, Elizabeth Blackburn, is local to me and I have met with her to discuss her work. She [...]

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A press release today says that “IBM Research Aims to Build Nanoscale DNA Sequencer to Help Drive Down Cost of Personalized Genetic Analysis”. The release goes on to say that “This advanced research effort to demonstrate a silicon-based “DNA Transistor” could help pave the way to read human DNA easily and quickly, generating advancements [...]

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That was the headline from a recent AP story. Depending on how the research goes, that could be a very conservative estimate. Here’s more from the article:
“James Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and colleagues in Denmark examined studies published globally in 2004-2005 on numerous issues related to aging. They found [...]

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The proponents of Net neutrality say that government regulation is necessary for a free and open Internet, but history doesn’t support that argument. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, for example, was supposed to bolster competition. Instead, by compelling companies to share their infrastructures, the government’s rules reduced incentives for improvement. In the long run, it [...]

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