Q and A

May

2022

Digging into diversity to understand diabetes

Stanford Medicine SCOPE, May 16 2022.

Studying the human genome — the code that determines how the body is put together and operates — has helped scientists decipher the root of many diseases. Even so, there are still holes (some might say gaping ones) in our knowledge of genetic disease.

That’s particularly true when it comes to the causes and risk factors that lead to genetically complex diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes. Researchers call these complex polygenic diseases because they arise from hundreds of small changes to the genome combined with a person’s environment and lifestyle. Read More >

Jul

2010

Q&A: Do we need a stem cell bank?

The Scientist, July 26, 2010.

Among stem cell policy changes instituted since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a controversial move to not renew funding of a key stem cell bank established at the WiCell Institute in Wisconsin. Many scientists worry that without a national center to distribute human embryonic stem cell lines to researchers, the availability, cost and quality of cell lines will suffer as a result. But not all feel this way.

The Scientist spoke with Evan Snyder, a stem cell biologist from the Burnham Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Diego, who says he doesn’t believe the community needs a nationally-funded bank.

Snyder, whose research focuses on the basic biology of stem cells and their potential applications, believes that in these tough financial times, researchers should do their academic duty and provide their stem cell lines to others at little or no cost, other than that of supplies and shipping. Read More >