2017 - Page 5 of 21

Groundbreaking new California stem cell law gives consumer protections on clinics

October 3, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 12 Comments

California now has a first-of-its-kind stem cell law that requires clinics pitching non-FDA approved stem cell offerings to be upfront with patients. It’s a bill that will help to protect patients. How? With Jerry Brown’s signature yesterday, the new California law mandates that stem cell clinics in our state take some steps to inform patients …

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Why Mitalipov’s ‘magic’ room for human embryo CRISPR may give us pause

October 3, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 7 Comments

The debate over whether the main conclusions of the Nature paper on human embryo CRISPR led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov’s lab at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) are correct remains unresolved. Note that Nature just added an editorial alert just above the references section to their paper: “Updated online 02 October 2017. Editorial Note: Readers are alerted that some …

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Stem cell good news: Spinal Cord Injury Trial, CIRM, Grants, & More

October 2, 2017 January 8, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D.

Stem cell good news time and more will be coming later this week. The stem cell and regenerative medicine world sometimes feels chaotic. Why? Because so much is going on both on the positive and negative sides of things. There is a whirlwind of activity and developments, and a tendency sometimes within our arena to …

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Wearing ‘Good Genes’: Trump & Eugenics

October 1, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 8 Comments

Is President Donald Trump a fan of eugenics? He seems to believe that he comes from greatly superior genetic stock. He hasn’t said much of anything about CRISPR ‘gene editing’ technology that can readily alter the genetic code of cells of nearly any organism, including humans, but Trump has a fascination with the concept of …

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New FDA Inspection 483s: Insights on Stem Cell Clinic & Cell Surgical Network

September 28, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 5 Comments

Two new FDA inspection reports called 483s provide fresh insights on a stem cell clinic, the network of clinics that it belongs to, and adverse events in patients. These reports detail issues the FDA found at the stem cell clinic California Stem Cell Treatment Center and its parent chain of clinics, Cell Surgical Network. The …

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Dissecting the FDA’s big, fat stem cell dilemma

September 26, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 18 Comments

Right now the FDA has a big fat stem cell conundrum on its hands. The agency is faced with a tough dilemma as how to deal with fat (adipose) stem cell products and the large number of businesses who sell them. Are fat/adipose stem cells a drug or not? If yes, what does the FDA do …

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Science hype award for worst CRISPR headline

September 24, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

Science hype is one of the more troublesome issues in our field today especially at its interface with the media, and unfortunately a ‘great’ example of that came this past week in a headline from the Daily Mail on the new CRISPR of human embryos paper from Kathy Niakan’s group in the UK. Although Niakan’s …

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Where I discover an alligator (lizard) in my garden

September 21, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 3 Comments

If you garden long enough you may start to see some cool critters. We had an unusually wet winter and very hot, dry summer here in Davis, CA. Maybe it’s coincidence, but the range of creatures in my garden seems different. For instance, I’ve been seeing much bigger dragon flies this year and a lot …

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1st Knockout Human Embryos Made with CRISPR: My Take on the Pub

September 20, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 4 Comments

Fogarty-Fig-3d-human-embryo-CRISPR-e1505774206656

Scientist make knockout human embryos with CRISPR? Today we see a new Nature paper (Fogarty, et al.) on CRISPR “gene editing” of human embryos, this time from the UK from Kathy Niakan’s group. Niakan got UK permission about 18 months ago to CRISPR healthy human embryos so they’ve been hard at work since. Because Fredrik …

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Year: 2017