Year: 2013

Stem Cell & Cell Med Industry Briefs

Where do things stand with some players in the for-profit world of stem cell and cellular medicine companies? Here are a few brief news items with quick analysis. Mesoblast is dominating the news of late. Mesoblast reported good news from its Phase II safety trial for its mesenchymal progenitor cell (MPC) product in patients with …

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Law and Order SVF: what is stromal vascular fraction?

SVF2

A big, fat elephant in “the room” of the commercial stem cell field today is something called stromal vascular fraction or SVF, made from human fat tissue or adipose. If you care at all about stem cells or the stem cell field more generally, you had better educate yourself on SVF. You can learn a …

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Has anti-aging finally come of age with Google’s Calico?

Can Google’s new anti-aging company, Calico, have you Googling at age 140? Don’t sell your burial plot just yet. The idea of anti-aging has been around for a very long time and efforts to combat aging have spanned millennia largely without any success so Calico (apparently short for California Life Company, which sounds more like …

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23andMe and the FDA: Perspectives on Warning Letter

23andMe

What’s the deal with this week’s FDA Warning Letter to 23andMe? First some background. I’m a researcher who studies stem and cancer cell genomics and epigenomics. I’m also a human being who has battled prostate cancer and is curious about my genome. With this background, I decided some time ago to take the plunge and experience what …

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Cell Surgical Network Series Part 3: Key Concerns

Elliot-Lander-and-Mark-berman-300x2331

I recently interviewed Drs. Elliot Lander and Mark Berman of the Cell Surgical Network. It’s an affiliated chain of clinics selling stem cell interventions for more than a dozen medical conditions. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here of the interview where we cover 10 important questions. Today is Part 3, where I explain why their answers …

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Cell Surgical Network Interview Part 2: SVF, FDA, & Homologous Use

Today I am posting Part 2 of my interview with Drs. Lander and Berman of the Cell Surgical Network. You can read Part 1 here, which is an interesting look inside the Network. The final portion of this blog post series, Part 3, is my take on their answers and you might not be surprised that …

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Elliot Lander & Mark Berman Interview Part 1: A Window into Cell Surgical Network

The Cell Surgical Network is a large and growing group of affiliated stem cell clinics across the US. The Network providers use stromal vascular fraction (SVF) interventions for a host of conditions on a for-profit basis. Drs. Elliot Lander and Mark Berman lead the Network. They agreed to do a Q&A interview with me. Below is Part 1, …

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