What’s hot at 100?

This blog is turning 100 — posts that is. On the eve of our centenial, here’s a top 10 of what’s hot:

1: Geron to begin stem cell trial for spinal cord injury
2: UC Irvine Opens the Sue & Bill Gross Hall
3: iPS cells and embryonic stem cells — similar but not the same
4: CIRM grantee Joanna Wysocka wins Outstanding Young Investigator Award
5: Stem cells treat Parkinson’s disease in rats
6: Update on stem cell treatments for spinal cord injury
7: Neural stem cells help mice with chronic spinal cord injury walk again
8: iPS and embryonic stem cells — similar but not the same
9: The competition that isn’t: Adult vs. embryonic stem cells
10: What the embryonic stem cell research ban means to California researchers

Of these, I’ll admit a preference for #4. It’s exciting to see enthusiastic young women scientists being recognized for their work. Wysocka, an assistant professor at Stanford University, credits her CIRM SEED grant (summary here) for pulling her into work with human embryonic stem cells. She’s since gone on to receive a New Faculty Award (summary here) and was given among the highest scores for a recently submitted NIH grant for human embryonic stem cell work to address a devastating developmental disorder. That grant has been caught up in the recent funding battle (mentioned in this blog entry).

A.A.