I’ve been gardening since I was a kid and I guess I’ve been a scientist that long too so now it’s time for another installment of “scientist in the garden.” You can see past such posts here, which usually include various cool photos. Today’s post is focused on unusual things in the garden. Getting out …
Scientist in the garden: purple cauliflower & other cool photos Read More »
The recent news that Texas A&M University has inked a full-blown deal with the direct-to-consumer stem cell clinic firm Celltex struck me as an unusual development. Recently we’ve seen more universities exploring the use of stem cells outside of the traditional FDA clinical trial process that is fundamentally based on an investigational new drug application (IND). Some …
Why did Texas A&M ink big deal with stem cell clinic firm Celltex on exosomes? Read More »
Stem cell clinics marketing non-FDA approved therapies directly to consumers have been in various tense situations at times with the FDA or academics over the years, but more recently these stem cell clinic-related firms also appear in conflict with each other sometimes. The most notable recent example of conflict involves Dr. Christopher Centeno of Regenexx …
Clinic versus clinic? Internecine conflicts among direct-to-consumer stem cell firms Read More »
Stem cells for flu? For me, that idea is new. Some months back there was buzz about the stem cell biotech Longeveron related to its report on early trial data on testing infusions of mesenchymal stem cells for frailty in the aged. Frailty that pops up in some aging folks can manifest in a variety …
Stem cells for the flu? Pondering PR email, frailty data from Longeveron Read More »
Stem cells are appearing more often in pop culture including movies like Spiderman, newspaper articles (and advertisements), just about a year ago on Dr. Oz, and now yesterday for the first time that I remember in the New York Times (NYT) crossword puzzle. There I was doing the NYT puzzle last night while munching a …
Stem cells pop up in pop culture including New York Times crossword Read More »
My first job in science was as a lab technician at UCSD School of Medicine and a big part of that job was growing cells called HUVECs or human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We isolated and grew the HUVECs from umbilical cords that we retrieved from the maternity ward of the UCSD hospital, which first …
Why we shouldn’t view the human embryo as a gizmo even in the CRISPR era Read More »
Did you hear the one about the deep state FDA, big pharma stem cell conspiracy theory? This is the phony idea that the FDA, big pharma, and, heck, sometimes even certain academics (who could that be?) are plotting together as some kind of biomedical secret society or “deep state” to block promising stem cell therapies …
Predatory clinics push stem cell secret society, deep state conspiracy theory Read More »
There are now so many clinics selling non-FDA approved stem cell offerings across the U.S. that tens or hundreds of thousands of patients are at risk. How did we get here? What if we had a way of understanding how stem cell clinics spread across the U.S. in the first place? For example, an animated …
Animated map video shows wildfire spread of US stem cell clinics lacking FDA approval Read More »
Is monkey cloning a good idea? We’re about to find out. A new Cell paper today reports the first cloning of monkeys via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), raising many questions. The paper from a team led by Qiang Sun is entitled, “Cloning of Macaque Monkeys by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.” The highlight bullet points …
A researcher working at Kyoto University has reportedly engaged in misconduct leading to an institutional request for retraction of a paper from the journal Stem Cell Reports. The paper in question appears to have rather large-scale problems: “Kohei Yamamizu, a specially appointed assistant professor at the university’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, falsified all …
Perspectives on high-profile stem cell retraction in the making from Kyoto University Read More »