Month: May 2013

Putting the IP in iPS cells: patent war looming?

war

Will intellectual property (IP) wars over patent rights to one of the most exciting new stem cell technologies hold back getting novel therapies to patients such as IPS cells? Unfortunately, it’s very possible. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are very cool stem cells made from non-stem cells through a process called cellular reprogramming. iPS  cells …

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New iPS cell conventional wisdom from polls: epigenetics & mutations remain concerns, immunogenicity not so much

I recently did a series of 4 polls on potential roadblock issues in the iPS cell field. The impetus for these polls was my sense that there were substantial differences in views on whether iPS cells were now proven to be equivalent to ES cells in 4 key ways. Turns out the polls got a …

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Stem cell clinic social media shenanigans exposed

Dana-George

Over at ScienceBlogs, Orac has put up an excellent post on the disturbing stem cell situation in Italy. This is a great, probing piece and I highly recommend it, but there’s more going on there too that is worth taking a look at including social media stuff. One of the other intriguing things about this …

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Why the extreme religious right are turning against iPS cells

Dr.-Oz-told-Oprah-and-Michael-J.-Fox-religious-right

There was a time, not so long ago, when the religious right hailed the discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Headlines blared from the extreme right on the Internet such as, “Embryonic stem cells obsolete”. Even the same kind of thing, saying, “The stem cell debate is dead”. You see opponents of embryonic stem …

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Leigh Turner Reports Company Precision StemCell To FDA citing numerous concerns including treatment of a minor

What is up with the stem cell company, Precision StemCell, these days? I can’t imagine they are exactly celebrating after having been reported to the FDA. They also have apparently moved operations from the US to Colombia at some point recently. What’s the deal here? First, a little background is helpful. In 2012, University of …

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Go ahead & blog about Dr. Famous’ sexy, but crappy paper, most people say

I recently did a poll (still running here) about a hypothetical stem cell hotshot called Dr. Famous who might have published a recent paper that was sexy, but crappy. This situation sure rang a bell with a lot of people! In fact, a half dozen people contacted me directly (and privately) to talk about it …

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Stem cell company Intellicell facing new financial wrinkles

Intellicell

It’s difficult to make it as a biotech company, I would say stem cell biotechs in general may have an even rougher time, and one such company,  Intellicell (Intellicell Biosciences, Inc), is showing a number of signs of distress in my opinion. An online financial tool predicts the probability of companies going bankrupt within the next …

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