Cynthia Fox

         Selected articles by Cynthia Fox

Bioscience Technology, Origin of Complex Life

Fortune, Stem Cell Scandal Shocks South Korea

Bioscience Technology, Symbiosis With Ancient Viruses Critical for Human Development

Fortune, Why Stem Cells Will Save Medicine

Forbes.com, Finding the Cure for Global Warming

Forbes, Why We're Party Animals

Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Cloning Laws, Policies, and Attitudes Worldwide (peer-reviewed)

Bioscience Technology, Newly Found Memory T Stem Cells May be Key to Gene Therapy

Discover, Can Stem Cells Save Dying Hearts?

Wired, Putting the Farm in Pharmaceuticals

Wired, Technogenarians

Bioscience Technology: Special Report: Do Stem Cell Telomeres Drive Most Idiopathic Fibrosis Cases?

Bioscience Technology: Chimp Eggs Die Off Later Than Humans' Eggs--Even Though Humans Live Longer

Reviews of  "Cell of Cells" 

The Daily Beast, July 14, 2017

"Cynthia Fox’s important book, Cell of Cells...described the vigorous embryonic stem cell research that was then going forward in Israel, Singapore (which was making a huge investment), South Korea, Japan, and China, in cooperation with the EU. Some scientists in Egypt tried to start up a program, but ran into problems from their government--not ethical, but because they were exchanging emails with Israeli scientists." -- Jeffrey Hart

  "Coming to an operating theater near you: stem-cell 

therapy. We need more intelligent writers like Cynthia Fox, writers who can translate the scientific facts and also convey the human drama."

John D. Casey, National Book Award-winning author of Spartina, October 26, 2016

Science, July 20, 2007

"When President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he quickly made it clear that he was not in favor of research on human embryonic stem cells. That August he sealed off access to federal funds for research on all but a few (now suboptimal) lines of human embryonic stem cells. His action not only caused stem cells to become a national political issue but also emboldened any country that wanted to compete with the United States in this research. The global race to establish dominance in a field with enormous scientific, health, and commercial possibilities was on, but with U.S. participants denied federal funding. In Cell of Cells, Cynthia Fox brings her impressive talent as a science writer and journalist to telling the story of this race. This hefty book offers a great read for anyone interested in the topic. Fox makes the story an adventure. She carries us to unlikely places, beginning with a camel ride to the Pyramids with an Egyptian stem cell researcher. She then flies to Israel to meet the scientist with whom the Egyptian wanted to collaborate (politics made it impossible). Israel's Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor provided four of the five lines to Jamie Thomson for their seminal paper on the first human embryonic stem cells.

"With a journalist's eye, Fox details her interviewees' offices, labs, mannerisms, and habits--even the views they see each day. Those details, impossible to obtain from a scientific paper, make the researchers come alive. Moving on to Singapore to describe stem cell work in the lavish research city of Biopolis and then on to Australia, Japan, China, and Korea, Fox accurately reveals the sociological and technical issues that stem cell research involves. For nonscientists, she gives pithy but effective explanations without disturbing the flow; for scientists, the book is a smooth read because Fox does not dumb down scientific terminology. The knowledge she acquired in her journeys is astonishing in range and depth, and she cites papers from the primary literature as rungs on the ladder to her overview. (The book includes 43 pages of references and interview notes.)

"The author's fascination with 'science trouncing science fiction,' the potential of stem cells, and our desire to learn what happens next, make this a rare can't-put-it-down science book."     

Science

"Fox creates indelible images. Her fly-on-the-wall description of a kidney transplant and chimeric stem cell operation at Massachusetts General Hospital is riveting, as is the almost smelly account of extracting oocytes for tissue cloning from pigs. In Jerry Yang's lab, she witnesses the Star Wars-like drama of remotely controlling pipettes to enucleate oocytes for somatic cell nuclear transfer. She tells the desperate stories of patients with heart failure, autoimmune disease, kidney failure, and Duchenne's dystrophy. She also warns of the trap of unethical, unscientific stem cell treatments in locations such as Moscow, Ukraine, and the Caribbean. This is not a book to be read while multitasking. Fox explains complex concepts and introduces numerous places and people. There are plenty of main characters--including Irv Weissman, Ron McKay, Shimon Slavin, Alan Colman, Ian Wilmut, Steve Minger, Wise Young, Doug Melton, Mahendra Rao, and the now disgraced Woo Suk Hwang--and some appear repeatedly.

"The author's fascination with 'science trouncing science fiction,' the potential of stem cells, and our desire to learn what happens next make this a rare can't-put-it-down science book. It reminds me of the fun of first reading The Double Helix. There are fights between and within labs, gossip, and different cultures, but there are also knowledge and exhilarating progress. Cell of Cells is a serious book, spiced up by Fox's wit and storytelling.

"What might have originally been the climax of the book occurred when Hwang became the first to publish work claiming the generation of a human embryonic stem cell line from a cloned blastocyst. South Korea seemed poised to win the race to therapeutic cloning, but the tale became a Greek tragedy of hubris and downright lies. It was as if in the space race Neil Armstrong had faked the Moon landings. Hwang's seeming triumph unraveled, slowly at first and ever faster as many of his claims were undermined. Because Fox wrote the book between 2003 and 2005, she probably had to go back and add 'appeared to' or 'apparently' to every reference to Hwang's results and then create a new last chapter, "The Fall of Seoul and the Rise of San Francisco." She writes, 'The Woo Suk Hwang fraud is the biggest in science history in terms of the number of guilty parties.'

"Bush has twice vetoed congressional bills to increase federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Cell of Cells illustrates the consequences for global science, states that fund their own researchers, and the dashed hopes of those who need potential treatments. Fox eloquently chronicles the consequences of this isolationist policy and squarely advocates a rational approach to funding research on both adult and embryonic stem cells." -- M. Ian Phillips, Science, July 20, 2007

"The knowledge she acquired in her journeys is astonishing in range and depth."  

Science

Nature, May 10, 2007

"...fast-paced, journalistic...informative and provides insight into the shape of things to come. The author mounts a persuasive case for the need to conduct research using both embryonic and adult stem cells, and pointedly takes to task religious groups and others who are opposed to the use of embryos in research. The portrait that Fox paints of stem-cell science and politics, and of the talented (sometimes flawed) individuals involved, is faithful to reality. She pitches her account squarely in the context of competition between individual scientists, labs and nations, not all of which have been proceeding honourably in the race to revolutionize medicine using stem cells. Few of the mainstream players are missed out. An entire chapter, 'Biopolis', is dedicated to Singapore (where I am based), which punches well above its weight in the stem-cell field. The Biopolis, a conglomeration of glamorous institutes with a world-class infrastructure, is just one of many places where Fox conducted a vast number of interviews, attended conferences and generally did her homework. The author has laboured to be thorough, and tells an interesting story."

                 "Her exhaustive legwork has produced a highly entertaining book....Fox's often wry tone is ideal for capturing the excitement, and the hype, that accompany any promising medical advance." 

The Lancet

 Scientific American Book Club

"One of the most striking narratives in the book concerns Woo Suk Hwang, the South Korean researcher who racked up a seemingly impressive series of coups--including a claim to have cloned several new human embryonic stem cell lines--before his career collapsed in 2005 in what Fox dubs "the biggest act of fraud in science history." Charges of fudged results, not to mention paying for eggs from his own female researchers, dealt a crushing setback to South Korea's stem cell efforts. Hwang's story illustrates the high stakes and pressures that mark this ongoing saga. Cell of Cells deftly chronicles the international quest to apply the potentially life-saving power of stem cells."

"Captures the adventures of scientists working towards this medical ambition with a realistic humanity....Refreshingly unideological."   

The Economist

The Journal of Clinical Investigation, September 4, 2007

"(Cell of Cells) makes one think about the immense possibility science holds for society. It tells a great story...Aspiring students of science would benefit from this book, both as stimulation and as an example of the kinds of approaches undertaken in this particular scientific endeavor. The restrictions placed on hES cell research by religious groups will only delay success (assuming that there will be success at the end of this road). Fox's book is an excellent introduction to the field of stem cell research and makes for interesting and entertaining reading."

AAAS Science Books and Films, March/April 2007

"This work beautifully paints a picture of the global landscape of stem cell research, focused on the last five years. The first half of the book, as well as several later chapters, introduces individuals and institutes that are leaders in these research efforts; as examples, the reader is transported to Egypt, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea, as well as Connecticut and California. The author skillfully makes these characters and places come alive, such that the reader is reminded that science is done by real people with distinct personalities and in locales as unique as their principal actors. The text also contains several narrative chapters that focus more on the clinical use of stem cells: in relation to cancer; in the treatment of disorders of the cardiovascular, immune, and nervous systems; in connection to reproduction, and more...this would be an excellent book to introduce young scientists to how 'science is done' in countries around the globe and to raise awareness of the globalization of science for all of us. Highly Recommended, College, Teaching Professional, General Audience." --Amy Hark

     "Cell of Cells deftly chronicles the international quest to apply the potentially life-saving power of stem cells."  

Scientific American Book Club

 I, Science, August 2007

"Fox's picture of stem cell science emerges as complicated, diverse, vibrant and messy science-in-the-making. " -- Edward Wawrzynczak

Journal of Law and Medicine, 15: 161 (2007) 

"Cynthia Fox is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in a variety of high-profile populist publications. Her new book on human embryonic stem (hES) cells is a fascinating and accessible work....The book contains a myriad of fascinating and disturbing tales. The reader cannot but be overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the discoveries which are in the process constantly now of coming to light. This early part of the 21st century is a remarkable time. Many of the components of stem cell research, though, are not so edifying. Fox chronicles frightening examples of greed, unethical conduct and utter indifference to ethical propprieties. Apart from anything else, stem cell reseearch is big business, huge business. Fox has done a fine job in documenting the early and inglorious years of stem cell research. She has rendered an important service in making much that is inaccessible understanding and engaging. The challenge now is for science, medicine and law to cooperate in ways which are meaningful and effective to curb the excesses of avarice and ambition in relation to stem cell developments. Fox's Cell of Cells should be compulsory reading for anyone wanting to understand where stem cell research has come from, where it is likely to head and the kinds of dilemmas that it will pose for the human race."

"A fascinating and accessible work....The book contains a myriad of fascinating and disturbing tales. The reader cannot but be overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the discoveries which are in the process constantly now of coming to light." 

Journal of Law and Medicine

Library Journal, March, 2007

"Gripping and accessible."

Experimental Medicine, December 2009

"A magnificent human drama." -- Okabe Yoji, former Executive Director, Institute for Health Economics and Policy

 The Lancet, April 21, 2007

"Peopled with quirky characters and crowded with strange and beautiful places, Cell of Cells reads like the best travel writing, but the author doesn't stint on the science, or the politics, of her subject. Cynthia Fox spent years touring the world's stem cell hotspots, staking out labs from Egypt to Israel to Singapore, and peering over the shoulders of scientists and surgeons. Her exhaustive legwork has produced a highly entertaining book. Dozens of key stem cell scientists get personality profiles, as well as a thorough accounting of their work and thought, including Israel's Shimon Slavin, the bone marrow transplantation pioneer who is now using stem cells to create dual immune systems; Jerry Yang of the University of Connecticut's Center for Regenerative Biology, the first scientist to clone an adult farm animal; and Harvard's Jonathan Tilly, who overturned decades of medical dogma by demonstrating the existence of mammalian oocyte stem cells. We get to know patients treated with stem cells, and are offered a surgeon's-eye view of their operations.

"Fox's often wry tone is ideal for capturing the excitement, and the hype, that accompany any promising medical advance. Fascinatingly, she was researching the book during the spectacular fall of Seoul National University researcher Hwang Woo Suk, whose reports of making the world's first human cloned stem cells were eventually exposed as fraud. We follow Hwang on his way up, basking in the attention of admirers at international meetings and whisking Fox through his state-of-the art lab. And when the time comes to tell of Hwang's disgrace, Fox does an excellent job of helping the reader keep the characters involved, and their misdeeds, straight. Cell of Cells opens with the words of researcher Susan Fisher: 'Science is like a stream of water. It finds a way.' And Fox provides us with a compelling account of just what this means in today's world of 'presidential lines,' Singaporean billions, and scientists as rock stars. Let's hope she brings us along on her next voyage."

The Times Literary Supplement, July 2, 2008

"In Cell of Cells, Cynthia Fox has some very interesting stories to tell about the science and where it is headed, and she also addresses in depth the political storm that it has stirred up....Cell of Cells is a wonderful book for the biologist, containing hundreds of interviews, thoroughly referenced citations, and careful notes. It is a very entertaining and readable presentation, replete with charming and highly personal stories about the researchers in the world of stem cells and their venues, addressing these issues and many more with scholarship and thoroughness."

"A wonderful book for the biologist, containing hundreds of interviews, thoroughly referenced citations, and careful notes...replete with charming and highly personal stories about the researchers in the world of stem cells and their venues, addressing these issues and many more with scholarship and thoroughness." 

The (London) Times Literary Supplement

The Economist, March 31, 2007

"Ms. Fox's book captures the adventures of scientists working towards this medical ambition with a realistic humanity. Hers is less workmanlike than the other books and refreshingly unideological. She tells of Egyptian scientists trying to establish a research centre in the midst of suicide-bombings. She describes underground stem-cell clinics in China and a Japanese doctor using the cells to give skinny women bigger bosoms. Away from the polarised propaganda, these are the many ambitions that stem-cell research is stirring up. In the final chapters of their books Ms. Fox and Ms. Herold chart the undoing of Hwang Woo-suk, once the global leader in the field, who lied about creating human embryonic stem cells by cloning. Ms. Fox's examination of  'Hwang-gate' is the more colourful...this search for new medicines is becoming ever more operatic."

The Dallas Morning News, April 1, 2007

"The book is as ambitious and wide-ranging as its subtitle...a living history....Ms. Fox delves deeply into the science, enabling readers to understand the research and its implications in detail....Parts of the book read like a novel, with rich renderings of settings and fully fleshed-out characters....Cell of Cells is an essential handicapper's guide."

"'Science is like a stream of water. It finds a way....' Fox provides us with a compelling account of just what this means in today's world of 'presidential lines,' Singaporean billions, and scientists as rock stars. Let's hope she brings us along on her next voyage." 

The Lancet

(Author photo by Kala Danca)