Last month’s Down to a Science on Stem Cells was featured in VidSF. About a week and change ago, the VidSF piece was also picked up by the Chronicle in a piece here.

The interview is spot on, albeit mildly embarassing as I admit alcohol being a key component of a great science cafe. I guess my love of beer really shines through.

And it will shine through next Monday as Science of Beer rolls into the Atlas Cafe. $2/pints with a side of science? Can’t beat that math.

The 8 minute video below is a great primer on pluripotent stem cells, the main piece of our discussion this month. Just a couple years ago, researchers in Japan were able to take human skin cells, have them express certain genes in order to return to a stem cell state. Research in this area is just beginning; we don’t know if these induced pluripotent stem cells function as embryonic stem cells.

The short term promise of these iPSC is in drug development. Specifically, growing these iPSCs into adult mature cells to test new drugs upon. For mature human cells, often testing on mice or other animals proves ineffective (or at least an incomplete picture). This advancement could fundamentally change the entire drug development process.

You may have noticed a new addition to the science cafe recently…the collectible mini cards handed out. At the beginning of each event, I have handing out mini cards (from MyMiniCards.com) as a combination raffle ticket and a good conversation piece. There are about 10 different images per event, all related to the topic of discussion. If you’re selected as the raffle winner…you win a free beer (or drink of your choice…I’d choose the beer).

Keep an eye out for the mini cards at upcoming events!