March 2009 - Atlanta Journal Constitution Article

January 2009 - Atlanta Journal Constitution Article

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May 2009 - Science Daily Article

Learn how to grow and use human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines and differentiate these cells towards neural and mesodermal cells.  Join UGA for an NIH-sponsored human embryonic stem cell workshop - August 30 to September 3, 2009 (Application deadline July 30, 2009).  The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Toolbox Workshop (HEST) is an intensive, laboratory-based, four-day course that offers the rare opportunity to work and train with instructors experienced in generating and developing  pluripotent stem cells , both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines.  Visit the website for more information.

December 2, 2009 - WASHINGTON — Shares of companies developing stem cell therapies surged Wednesday on news that the federal government has cleared 13 new stem cell lines for testing, bringing to a close nearly a decade of restrictions.  Read full article:  http://www.ajc.com/business/biotech-cos-rise-as-222778.html

July 12, 2009 - The race to craft stem cells that have the virtues, but not the notoriety, of their embryonic brethren faces its final hurdle: becoming safe enough to help patients. Researchers have unveiled a flurry of advances in recent months in the development of "induced pluripotent" stem cells. . .  ."Stem cell research pretty clearly has public support, so this is not a hard choice for Obama," says science policy expert Aaron Levine of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. But, he cautions, "The opponents will continue to be very vocal."

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June 18, 2010 - The Associated Press - TOKYO — A Japanese scientist who created the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from ordinary skin cells has won one of this year's Kyoto Prizes and will receive a $550,000 prize.  Shinya Yamanaka, 47, developed a way to reprogram skin cells so that they can be developed into all kinds of tissue, such as that of the heart or brain. This has vast potential to speed medical research, creating genetically matched cells for use in damaged parts of the body. 

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...It’s a debate fraught with irony. Georgia has some of the nation’s leading researchers in the area of embryonic stem cells, scientists recruited and paid for by the state as eminent scholars; and state leadership has identified the life sciences as a strategic industry of interest. And yet, many of Georgia’s elected officialshave made it clear that they do not want new research in embryonic stem cells happening in Georgia,... “Induced pluripotent cells are a great success story, but it’s owed wholly to the fact that we had a starting basis in embryonic stem cells,” says Todd McDevitt, a Georgia Tech scientist who directs stem cell technology research in his lab and focuses most of his attention on ES cells... For Georgia Tech professor Bob Nerem, research needs to move forward in all areas. “At some point we will know about what makes the most sense from a patient point of view,” says Nerem, director of both the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech, and the Georgia Tech-Emory Collabora-tion for Regenerative Medicine (GTEC)... But for a young scientist like Todd McDevitt, whose lab at Georgia Tech has attracted some $2 million in federal funds and employs 10 other researchers, a differing opinion that has the potential to criminalize his work forces him to consider other options.
 

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