Ten pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human skin or bone marrow cells are now available for research on disorders with genetic components, ranging from Down’s syndrome to Parkinson’s disease, said researchers here. (MedPage Today)

The first words in Ed Wood’s infamously awful masterpiece Plan 9 From Outer Space are, “Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.” That line has been ringing in my head for weeks. It seems to miss its own point: Time goes only one way; everything takes place in the future.

Speaking with people involved with the loosely connected movements of life extension, transhumanism and singularitarianism, I kept returning to that Plan 9 quote. Its stupidity melted away, leaving something similar to a Zen koan. (Hartford Advocate)

Facilities in Los Angeles and Tustin allegedly churned thousands of indigents through their sites and billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for costly and unjustified medical procedures. (Los Angeles Times)

U.S. stem cell experts have produced a library of the powerful cells using ordinary skin and bone marrow cells from patients, and said on Thursday they would share them freely with other researchers.

They used a new method to re-program ordinary cells so they look and act like embryonic stem cells — the master cells of the body with the ability to produce any type of tissue or blood cell. (Reuters)

The vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the U.S. health care system, and 82 percent think it needs to be overhauled, a new survey found. (HealthDay)

This report from The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System examines fragmentation in our health care delivery system and offers policy recommendations to stimulate greater organization—established mechanisms for working across providers and care settings. (The Commonwealth Fund)

A drug-like molecule called Wnt can be substituted for the cancer gene c-Myc, one of four genes added to adult cells to reprogram them to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, according to Whitehead researchers. (ScienceDaily)

NeoStem, Inc. announced today that the new Southern Florida stem cell collection center located in Coral Gables, a suburb of Miami, is targeted to open in September. (MarketWatch)

But a growing number of doctors and medical organizations question the usefulness and expense of privately banking cord blood, which they say currently has limited applications, such as treating certain rare blood cancers and blood disorders in children.  They say more research is required before other uses are discovered, and they advocate instead a public system in which cord blood is donated for no cost and is accessible by all people who are in need. (Chicago Tribune/Boston Globe)