Advanced Cell Technology (OTB:ACTC), a developer of stem cell treatments, says it has not renewed its lease on a facility in Alameda, CA, and has vacated labs in Boston as part of a plan to cut annual operating expenses by $5 million to $6 million. The company maintains operations in Worcester, MA, and in Los Angeles.

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Advanced Cell Technology, a California-based developer of cellular treatments with R&D labs in Worcester, MA, has licensed technology from Embryome Sciences related to the reprogramming of human cells such as skin cells into embryonic-like cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, Embryome reports. The technology from Alameda, CA-based Embryome is intended to enable cells with stem cell-like qualities to be generated without the controversial use of human embryos and egg cells.

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Website Seeks Credibility From Readers

A new website is using a twist on popularity rankings by asking readers to score it on credibility. NewsCred, which just launched its beta version, lets users score its news stories by how credible they are, an attempt to add a new level of involvement to news sites, Reuters reports. The site is mostly in English, but plans to expand its Spanish and French content.

Google to Host Bloggers at Political Conventions

When hordes of bloggers join the swarms of delegates descending on Denver next week for the Democratic National Convention, and on Minneapolis for the Republican version the week after that, Google will be there with open arms, Internet access, and snacks. Google, which wasn’t a significant presence at the conventions four years ago, will set up a two-story, 8,000 square foot headquarters for bloggers in Denver, with something similar planned for the Republicans, the Wall Street Journal reports. Along with Internet-equipped workspaces, couches for napping, and free smoothies, the company will offer a closing-night party.

Democratic Platform Addresses Internet

The Democratic party platform, to be discussed and voted on at next week’s convention, takes special notice of the role of the Internet in modern life. The platform calls for a national broadband strategy. Wired says this is very different from the Bush administration’s stance, which has left issues of broadband access in the hands of the private sector.

Stem Cells Produce Blood in Lab

Blood drives may one day be a thing of the past, thanks to work at Advanced Cell Technology of Santa Monica, CA, the University of Illinois, and the Mayo Clinic. As the Los Angeles Times reports, researchers there say they’ve used embryonic stem cells to make blood. The team says they’re still several steps away from making blood suitable for transfusions.

Is Data Fusion a Boon or a Bust?

Data fusion, the process of linking several databases together to create a single, wide-ranging profile of a person for such purposes as preventing credit card theft or chasing down deadbeat dads, promises efficient use of personal data but seems like a nightmare to privacy advocates. But as it turns out, Scientific American reports, these databases may contain too many errors and meaningless coincidences to actually be useful.

Stolen Data For Sale Online

The Security Fix blog at the Washington Post continues its look at the tools of the trade for cyber criminals. Today, it talks about websites where thieves can purchase stolen credit-card data. The average price for such information is $1.20 per card number, along with names, addresses, and phone numbers.

LEDs May Light Up New York Streets

Long-lasting, energy-efficient LEDs have already become ubiquitous in traffic lights around the country. Now they may be poised to take over streetlights as well. According to the New York Times, New York City will conduct tests of new streets lights, complete with new pole designs, based on LEDs. If the tests are successful, the city could eventually replace all 300,000 of its streetlights with LED versions.

Bloomberg Proposes Wind Plan for New York

Windmills could top New York City skyscrapers and bridges, or supply power from the waters off Manhattan, if Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his way. Speaking at the National Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Bloomberg cited studies predicting that wind energy could provide 10 percent of the city’s electricity needs within 10 years, says CNET News. Most of the installations would likely be small turbines on tops of buildings. Well, after all, old New York was once New Amsterdam.

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I don’t know the folks at Advanced Cell Technology, a company famous for making sensational claims about cloning the embryos of humans and animals alike, and it sounds like I may never get the chance. Today’s Boston Globe has a story about how ACT, which has been long on promise and low on cash for much of its history, appears to be finally running out of steam.

The story hinges on a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week that says ACT, whose labs are in Worcester, MA, had $17 million in liabilities and $1 million in cash, and that unless it raises money fast or makes huge cost cuts, it may not be able to keep the doors open past July 31. The stock closed yesterday at 2.5 cents.

The Globe’s Todd Wallack writes that all the publicity that ACT garnered over the last decade “likely backfired.” News reports likened former CEO Michael West to the famed circus promoter P.T. Barnum, he recounts. A former executive adds that pharmaceutical firms and life sciences VCs were scared away by ACT’s controversial cloning techniques and stem cell research.

West surely got more than the usual publicity for a small biotech company. He was profiled in several publications and, as Wallack points out, co-wrote an eight-page spread on the “First Human Clone” in Scientific American. In 2003, he wrote a book, The Immortal Cell: One Scientist’s Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human Aging. West, though, told the Globe he doesn’t think he overstated any of the company’s work.

“I have indeed heard that criticism of me, but think it’s flat wrong,” he told the newspaper.

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Advanced Cell Technology, a Los Angeles, CA-based stem cell company with research operations in Worcester, MA, announced on Thursday that it’s been able to derive five stem cell lines from human embryos without destroying the embryos. The company’s approach (OTC BB: ACTC) was published in the new edition of the journal Cell Stem Cells, published by Cell Press. Scientists in Japan and at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute recently used a different technique—starting with adult cells rather than embryonic ones—to produce similar cell lines.

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