The mood at linkurl:BIO yesterday;http://www.bio.org/ preceding Bill Clinton's speech felt more like a rock concert than a keynote address. In fact, I was very nearly carried away in a stampede when the conference organizers finally opened the barriers to the hall. When everyone finally got settled in, there was rapt attention during Clinton's 45-minute speech. True to form, he spoke with perfect organization, seamlessly citing statistics and facts without ever looking at notes. His theme for t

This morning at the 2006 linkurl:BIO meeting;://www.bio.org/events/2006/ in Chicago, I listened to a panel of high profile executives at a range of companies within the biotech/pharma sector, all of whom seemed to agree that pharmaceutical companies are taking more risks in recent years by investing in earlier-stage products. This is a major shift for the industry, which has traditionally chosen to spend more money on later-stage products with more data to suggest they work, rather than throw th

Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at the 2006 linkurl:BIO meeting;http://www.bio.org/events/2006/ today. But when I arrived this morning, I saw large signs alerting the media that the event was closed to the press. Why would BIO prevent the media from reporting on likely the biggest speaker that?s ever attended the conference? Surely this would be a huge plug for the organization. When I spoke to BIO media officials, they told me the decision came from Clinton?s people, not th

Preliminary report suggests neither manufacturing nor dosing issues were to blame for reactions to monoclonal antibody TGN1412

The list of fired medical journal editors became longer in February when the two top editors at the Canadian Medical Association Journal were fired after a dispute with the publisher over an article about emergency contraception. The deposed editors have joined a distinguished club whose members include: George Lundberg, whom the American Medical Association deposed as editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association after he published a sex survey in 1999 at the height of the

Researchers have provided clues about a potentially new source of human stem cells that are physically close to the actual embryo, but miles away from the controversy surrounding its use in research. Last night, at the linkurl:Keystone meeting;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cells, linkurl:Ursula Manuelpillai;http://www.med.monash.edu.au/ob-gyn/staff/ursulam.html at the Monash Institute of Medical Research in Victoria, Australia presented a poster

After three days of discussions about stem cell machinery, the organizers concluded the linkurl:Keystone meeting;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cell biology today by treating participants to data showing what these cells can already do in humans. These efforts appear not quite as differentiated as stem cells themselves, but are hopefully on their way to becoming so. Tonight, Michele De Luca from the Veneto Eye Bank Foundation and the University o

Who would guess that it kind of makes sense to use the liver to produce beta cells, the vehicles for easing the problem of type 1 diabetes? Well, I was convinced of just that during a talk I attended yesterday at this year?s linkurl:Keystone meeting;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cell biology. linkurl:Jonathan M.W. Slack;http://www.bath.ac.uk/bio-sci/slack.htm of the University of Bath in the UK and his colleagues have been studying the use of li

One of the biggest holy grails in biology involves finding a means to generate pluripotent and infinitely replicating stem cells without generating an embryo. One Japanese team presented some potent clues last night at the linkurl:Keystone conference;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cell biology -- but stem cell researchers will need a few more bread crumbs before they can put this potentially exciting information to use. linkurl:Shinya Yamanaka;ht

Scientists at the University of Central Florida have devised a creative way to obtain stem cells with embryonic properties -- by coaxing mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to return to their roots, and display embryonic qualities. To achieve this, linkurl:Angel Alvarez;http://sugaya.ucf.edu/members.html and his co-author Kiminobu Sugaya "dedifferentiated" MSCs by over expression of the ESC gene nanog, using gene transfection. The resulting cells developed a reduced size and formed cellular

This year?s linkurl:Keystone meeting;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cells -- surrounded by the dreamy mountains of Whistler, British Columbia -- started not with science, but with ethics. Specifically, the ethics of embryonic stem cell research, and what the scientists who study them need to remember. linkurl:Anne McLaren;http://www.cmgp.org.uk/research/people/mclaren_a.html of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gordon Institute, Cambridge Uni

The Michener Awards Foundation has nominated the beleaguered Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) for the linkurl:2005 Michener Award;http://www.michenerawards.ca/english/2005finalists.htm for "meritorious public service journalism." The article that earned the journal their latest nod is the same article at the heart of recent debates over editorial practice at the journal, which has seen the resignations of the majority of editors and editorial board members. The linkurl:inve