Year: 2018

Call for 31 Anversa retractions by Harvard; heart stem cell concept broken?

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
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In a stunner, Harvard and Brigham & Women’s Hospital reportedly have jointly called for the retraction of 31 papers on heart stem cell research authored by embattled heart stem cell researcher Piero Anversa. The scoop on this by STAT/Retraction Watch written by Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus gives further details on this mess and past …

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Highlights of Science Writers DC Stem Cell Panel with FDA’s Peter Marks

June 8, 2022 / By
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I’m enjoying attending and speaking at the annual Science Writers 2018 meeting in D.C. where I spoke this morning on a panel about stem cells. The session was specifically on the Wild West of stem cells. You can follow the meeting events on Twitter with the #sciwri18 hashtag. I had three wonderful fellow panelists, Marilynn Marchione of …

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FDA recalls Liveyon stem cell product: blow to big clinic supplier?

February 1, 2021 / By / 33 Comments
LIVEYON

The FDA has issued a recall of the main stem cell product of a California firm called Liveyon that is linked to unproven stem cell clinics. The recall seems to have been due to “adverse reactions.” An emerging big player in the birth-related stem cell clinic area? I’ve been hearing the name Liveyon pop up …

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Papers on artificial embryos and muscle stem cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
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If you are sick of the general news lately, I recommend turning to the wonder of cool science like the thought-provoking data in the duo of new stem cell pubs discussed below including on artificial embryos. Synthetic embryos A team led by Alfonso Martinez-Arias reports new findings in their Nature letter in the growing area …

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Cell on wheels: ‘stem-cell-mobile’ delivers unproven therapies

February 1, 2021 / By / 11 Comments
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There’s the batmobile for Batman, right, but what about a stem-cell-mobile? Every so often someone sends me some wild new stem cell clinic thing that they’ve seen that is both real and almost unbelievable at the same time. The latest is a mobile stem cell “clinic” business called RegenMed of Florida, which is what I’m …

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News bites: CIRM, anti-MSCs, & human eggs from stem cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 8 Comments
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Stem cells are always in the news so what’s up in the last week or two? CIRM News The dialogue over CIRM’s future is picking up a bit of steam. The San Francisco Chronicle did an in-depth piece on CIRM some weeks back and then opined that they didn’t feel supportive of another round of …

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A germinal list of 2019 stem cell meetings and conferences

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
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Here is my initial list of 2019 Stem Cell Meetings & Conferences. Send me your listings if you don’t see your meeting here so I can start fleshing out the list more. Meeting listings are not endorsements and I try to make this list fairly comprehensive of as many stem cell meetings as I can. …

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Digesting new esophageal organoids papers

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
Esophageal-organoids

There’s a new paper in Cell Stem Cell on esophageal organoids that has really caught people’s attention. It is entitled, “3D Modeling of Esophageal Development using Human PSC-Derived Basal Progenitors Reveals a Critical Role for Notch Signaling.” It comes from a team led by Jianwen Que. Update: I didn’t realize when I first did this post that …

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FDA outlines potential crackdown on Clinicaltrials.gov offenders

February 1, 2021 / By / 11 Comments
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Clinicaltrials.gov is a wonderful resource for its many users, whether a patient searching for a clinical trial to actually participate in or someone doing research as I have done, but it’s not perfect and some sponsors have been breaking the rules regarding its use. It’s a major problem in fact. Based on new draft guidance …

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Quick Q&A with ViaCyte CEO on CRISPR-stem cell work

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
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We heard this week about the encouraging news of a new CRISPR-stem cell collaboration between stem cell biotech ViaCyte and CRISPR Therapeutics. The goal of the team is to make genetically engineered pancreatic derivatives from stem cells that would have a unique immune stealthiness. If such an approach was successful, patients would not need to …

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