Month: November 2019

Weekend reads include stem cell pubs, cancer link to heart disease, CRISPR babies & of course emu oil

stem-cells-heart-disease-trigger-immune-response

Here in the U.S. we just had our big Thanksgiving holiday, but science goes, stem cells keep growing and needing attention, and it’s another weekend chance to catch up on our paper reading. Here’s this weekend edition of recommended reads including news items and pubs. From Cell Stem Cell: Single-Cell Transcriptome Analysis of Uniparental Embryos Reveals …

Weekend reads include stem cell pubs, cancer link to heart disease, CRISPR babies & of course emu oil Read More »

Another FDA letter to a stem cell clinic supplier: what’s the agency’s long game?

FDA-untitled-letter

The FDA just sent another untitled letter to a producer of a potentially non-compliant perinatal “stem cell” product that may be an unapproved drug. This follows past non-warning letters and/or inspection reports made public to Liveyon, R3 Stem Cell, Stemell, and others. RAPS has more on the story of the new letter here. This newest …

Another FDA letter to a stem cell clinic supplier: what’s the agency’s long game? Read More »

Bad Batch podcast’s dark picture of perinatal stem cell industry

John-Kosolcharoen-Liveyon-Bad-Batch

I finished listening to the first 6 episodes of the Bad Batch podcast last week. The series is by medical journalist Laura Beil. I think there will be a 7th episode that’s a Q&A. I highly recommend listening to the series even if parts are wrenching at times like how much patients and families have …

Bad Batch podcast’s dark picture of perinatal stem cell industry Read More »

Whatever happened to the STAP cell scientists including Haruko Obokata?

Obokata-game

Once upon a time this blog and major outlets around the world were regularly writing about a Japanese stem cell researcher named Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子). Whatever happened to Obokata and the other folks directly involved in STAP cell research? First, a bit of background because maybe still a few people never heard of STAP cells …

Whatever happened to the STAP cell scientists including Haruko Obokata? Read More »

Levrier guest post on CRISPR Consensus Meeting – “we all must get involved in this debate”

Guillaume-Levrier

By Guillaume Levrier Human germline editing has been done before. It will be done again in the future, as it is relatively easy to perform. No mechanism with the de facto ability to prevent it from being organized has yet been designed, let alone implemented. But the fact that germline editing has, can, and will …

Levrier guest post on CRISPR Consensus Meeting – “we all must get involved in this debate” Read More »

Cool Cat iPS cells & other notable stem cell pubs/news

Gur-Cohen-et-al.-Science-Figure-2b

Once or twice a month I do a post on notable stem cell publications and news, which often but not always include research on iPS cells. It’s sort of a recommended reads kind of post, but I often include one or two things that aren’t necessarily recommended exactly yet seem kind of surprising or novel …

Cool Cat iPS cells & other notable stem cell pubs/news Read More »

R3 Stem Cell still raises red flags for me after FDA letter including do one-get one meeting

R3-Stem-Cell-Course

Back in May, the FDA cautioned a stem cell clinic firm called R3 Stem Cell and its leader David Greene about what they were doing. Importantly, the agency indicated that some of R3’s stem cells may be unapproved drug products. FDA and R3 Stem Cell While the FDA didn’t send R3 Stem Cell a formal warning …

R3 Stem Cell still raises red flags for me after FDA letter including do one-get one meeting Read More »

MD Stem Cells purported Right To Try program

Steven-Levy-Jeffrey-Weiss, SCOTS trial

I’ve been concerned about a stem cell group called MD Stem Cells for many years. Now it comes under more scrutiny from a new must-read piece by Donna Young over at S&P Global. Young’s article reports a puzzling, purported right-to-try (RTT) program that MD Stem Cells appears to working on with Richard Garr. Note that …

MD Stem Cells purported Right To Try program Read More »