Weekly reads: Scott Gottlieb v. RFK Jr., DNA typewriters, Arnold Caplan

Remember former Trump’s FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb?

Gottlieb’s back in the news in an interesting way related to the upcoming second Trump administration.

I just wrote about what to expect from new FDA Commissioner nominee Marty Makary. In that piece, I noted that Scott Gottlieb first came to lead the FDA after a record of saying the agency had been overregulating things including stem cells. Yet, Commissioner Gottlieb acted in opposition to unproven stem cell clinics.

FDA Commissioners: Scott Gottlieb and maybe Marty Makary

Scott Gottlieb opposes nomination of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary

So where do Gottlieb and RFK intersect? Here’s the news. Former Trump FDA chief is working to torpedo RFK Jr.’s Senate confirmation, STAT News. Scott Gottlieb is still an influential figure and one that I felt generally did well at the helm of the agency. For that reason, it’s striking that he is publicly opposing the nomination of RFK Jr. to be HHS Secretary. In that role, Kennedy would be in power over the FDA.

Perhaps stem cells are not among the main topics on Gottlieb’s or RFK’s radar screens. However, as I said Gottlieb took action against unproven stem cell clinics when he was leading the FDA, while Kennedy seems in favor of unproven stem cells.  In fact, RFK Jr. recently falsely claimed the FDA was suppressing stem cells, probably meaning unproven stem cells sold by clinics.

Can Gottlieb help sink Kennedy’s confirmation as HHS Secretary?

Recommended regenerative reads

• ‘DNA Typewriters’ Can Record a Cell’s History, NYT. This is a nice article from Carl Zimmer. The idea is to make gene-edited cells that can record their experiences in the body like how many times they’ve divided, exposure to chemicals, etc. Someday, such cells might be inserted in people to record health events.
• What Stem Cell Treatments Can—and Can’t—Do, Men’s Health. When I saw this I thought “uh oh” as this magazine has not done a great job covering stem cell treatments. However, this new piece is fine.
• Harvard Medical School Launches Continuing Education Stem Cell Medicine Course, The Harvard Crimson.This course is through ISSCR. Check it out.
• Early-stage trial finds stem cell therapy for retinitis pigmentosa is safe, Medical Xpress.
• New report urges guidelines — and some restrictions — on stem cell-based embryo models, STAT News.
• Oxford scientist resigns from Royal Society over Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship, The Guardian. The scientist who resigned is the great Dorothy Bishop.

Thoughts on a new Nature advertorial

Regenerative engineering: a safer way to help children with severe bladder disorders, Nature advertorial. What’s an advertorial? It’s a research item that has not gone through peer review and that is published for a fee. Probably a large fee. Why link to and bring this one up? There is a big need for bladder-related regenerative medicine and some of the data here do seem interesting.

However, there are reasons for concern when Nature or other outlets, famous or not, publish what are essentially research ads.

For instance, some of you might remember when I raised awareness about a Nature advertorial for MUSE cell research.  See: Nature yanks article that was actually advertisement on controversial stem cells. I wonder how careful the publisher is about at least giving some editorial review of such pieces. How often do they reject publishing such items? If Nature charges say $10,000 a pop for advertorials, it might be hard for them to give up that revenue stream, even if some of the pieces are ill-advised. For example, I doubt that MUSE cells even exist naturally and maybe not at all.

Blast from the past

Insightful interview with Arnold Caplan: Part 1: MSC history, nomenclature, & properties. This is part one of my 2013 interview with the MSC pioneer. Check out all 4 parts for some interesting history and insights from Caplan. Sadly, Arnold Caplan died earlier this year.