Cheers to hESCs@CHOC

It’s been many, many years since I’ve sipped a cocktail like the one above, but this was the celebratory drink ordered for us by I don’t know whom on the last night of the NIH hESC training course…. Read More

Winding Down

I’m on day 10 or so of conference lectures. Today it’s Stem Cell Culture Secrets and Patent Issues (which combine into quite the quagmire in the hESC field). Yesterday I only attended one talk, that of Gary Robbins,… Read More

Monday Notes on hESCs@CHOC

    Michael Kalichman, director of the Research Ethics Program at UC San Diego, spoke this morning about hESC ethics. His was a probing Q&A format as he tried to get the scientists to think through the pertinent… Read More

Friday Fun with Religion, Science and the Press

Friday, March 7, 2008 ACT I: 12:00 pm, directly after a Psychiatry & Spirituality Forum lecture to psychiatric residents at UC Irvine (Paraphrasing) Senior Staff Doctor: “Hello” Christine: “Hi, I’m Christine. I’m a journalist. I’m doing a story… Read More

hESCs@CHOC 2

Day 2 of the NIH hESC Training Course was fascinating. This year, I’m not hanging with the scientists 10 hours-a-day, but am only attending lectures that might address advances or new challenges in the field. Once again, I’m… Read More

hESCs@CHOC

I’ve gone straight from engaging with pastors to engaging with post-doctoral scientists. What, you ask, do I mean? Well, for the next 10 days, I’ll be at Childrens Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) attending the 5th annual NIH… Read More

Chronic pain harms the brain, but what about the spirit?

A new study published in the journal Neuroscience finds that “chronic pain can disrupt brain function and cause problems such as disturbed sleep, depression, anxiety and difficulty making simple decisions.” HealthDay News reports: “Researchers at Northwestern University‘s Feinberg School of Medicine in… Read More

PTSD/PTG: Two Sides of a Coin

Last week, in my Religious Considerations and Democratic Pluralism post, I failed to note a scholar who spoke at the Politics, Pyschology and Ethics seminar that I mentioned at the end of the post. Her name is Cheryl Koopman and… Read More