A brief report in the NEJM today highlights the risks facing patients who get stem cell treatment from dubious clinics as one such patient recently developed a large spinal tumor. Dr. Aaron L. Berkowitz and colleagues describe how this patient who received a mixture of several stem cell types from an overseas clinic was later diagnosed …
Patient gets cancer growing on spine from dubious stem cell treatment Read More »
Something very unusual and positive just happened at this year’s ISSCR meeting. Every year in December I give out an award for the Stem Cell Person of the Year to the individual with the strongest positive impact in the stem cell field generated specifically from outside-the-box thinking and actions. Dr. Jeanne Loring was the recipient in …
At ISSCR 2016, $2,000 donation to Summit For Stem Cell patient group Read More »
ISSCR 2016’s first plenary session is focused on stem cells & cancer. I was really excited about this one even before the meeting as this topic is a major focus of my own lab. Here’s the lineup for this plenary with great expertise in stem cells & cancer from across the globe: President’s Address: Sean Morrison, Children’s …
Austin Smith talk at #ISSCR2016: a ground state inhibitor pathway Read More »
Starting tomorrow I’m going to be at the ISSCR2016 meeting live blogging it in San Francisco. The annual ISSCR meeting is a great place to hear about all the latest research from basic findings to reports on pre-clinical and clinical studies. There are always valuable and unique insights from chatting with people too. I plan to …
An elderly woman in Australia reportedly died shortly after receiving a fat stem cell transplant. Sheila Drysdale passed away hours after getting an adipose stem cell treatment a few days before Christmas in 2013. That death is now being investigated by the coroner there. Not only is this death in Sydney distressing in it of …
Woman’s death after “no big deal” fat stem cell therapy: coroner investigating Read More »
Today an opinion piece that I wrote about CIRM was published in the San Francisco Chronicle. The unusual element here is that the article is critical of CIRM. More specifically I raised concerns about a recent political trend at CIRM under its new President Randy Mills lobbying for dramatically weaker stem cell regulatory oversight. The Chronicle piece was first posted …
The backstory on my opinion piece in SF Chronicle critical of CIRM lobbying Read More »
Stem cell studies continue to make big news with a mixed bag of trends, and some good stem cell news and others not so much. Mesoblast ($MESO) had its stock suspended for quite so time recently in anticipation of a big announcement. When that news came today it was discouraging in the form of its partner …
Stem cell news bites: Mesoblast, BioTime, MS, FDA Warning, & More Read More »
After the NY Times published an article on June 8th on the exciting, controversial technology called gene drive that can alter the genome of an entire species, strangely the article’s headline changed at least twice. The article was focused on a National Academy panel studying this technology. The headline gradually evolved to become much more positive in tone. You …
Shape Shifting NY Times Headline on Gene Drive Becomes More Positive Read More »
Was an intensely hyped Nature paper connected to the subsequent knighthood for one of the authors just two days after publication? It’s hard to imagine there isn’t a connection and such a link is bad news for biomedical science. Professor Doug Turnbull and fellow UK authors published a Nature paper a few days ago that reinforced a …
Hyped Nature paper & author knighthood 2 days later raise red flags Read More »
Here are some headlines & articles worth a look and some thought on stem cell and biomedical science more generally. Gallup finds in a new poll that 60% of Americans surveyed find human embryonic stem celsl research “largely acceptable”. On the other hand human reproductive cloning is highly frowned upon, sandwiched in the “highly unacceptable …
Weekend reads: ES cell research polls well, Gordie Howe, MS, IPS cells, and more Read More »