There have been many other interesting scientific and specifically regenerative medicine developments and papers this past week including with CIRM and exciting CIRM funding to UC Davis so read on, but first a somewhat random question: are you more of a cat person or dog person? I’d say I’m both. But our big dog is …
Weekly reads: cats, COVID, Muse cells, cancer stem cells, MS Read More »
The stem cell universe is populated by sometimes mysterious acronyms (see an image of a whole alphabet stem cell acronym soup), many of which refer to specific kinds of stem cells including one nebulous type called MUSE cells. I’m not convinced that MUSE cells exist, but oddly there appear to be four clinical trials ongoing …
Dubious MUSE cells are in 4 Japanese stem cell trials Read More »
Are MUSE cells for real? Stem cells come in different types that vary in a key property called “potency”, but very few are pluripotent. The more potency, the greater the flexibility of a stem cell to make other cell types. Flexibility in the cellular world is power. The most powerful stem cells generally used are …
Jury is still out on purported adult pluripotent stem cells despite new MUSE paper Read More »
Placental biologics firm MiMedx and exosome company Kimera Labs both recently received FDA warning letters. The letter to MiMedx was related to its placental biologics products and procedures. The new warning to Kimera Labs was about its exosome products and an amniotic product. Let’s compare these letters starting with the one to MiMedX. MiMedx warning letter …
Weekly reads: MiMedX & Kimera Labs FDA warnings, NYT on Bryan Johnson, MUSE cell trial Read More »
What is a woolly dog? Is it somehow related to the Woolly Mammoth? Before we get into that and the rest of my recommended reads, note that I’m finalizing my list of contenders for this year’s The Screamers Science Hype Awards. Last year The BBC won The Screamers for an article “Baby’s life ‘probably saved’ …
Holiday reads: woolly dog vs. mammoth, man eggs, designer B-cells, bluebird bio blues Read More »
Imagine writing or editing an article for the WaPo about risky, unproven medical interventions for COVID that desperate patients might consider. Then you link directly to the websites selling this stuff in your article. What the heck? WaPo links to risky long COVID “treatments” By linking, you not only are driving customers to these firms, …
Weekend reads: WaPo blows it on COVID, paper-mill detector, adult pluripotent stem cells Read More »
A few people in the stem cell field keep arguing that adult pluripotent stem cells exist, including so-called “very small embryonic-like stem cells” or VSEL stem cells. These days the supposed cells are called VSELs or V-cells too. Only a handful of researchers have ever been able to report finding and studying these cells. Others …
Introduction to CAR-T cells CAR-T cells are an exciting cutting-edge technology that has been garnering great interest including in the stem cell field. Potential therapeutic uses of CAR-T, which stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells (CAR-T), are being studied in clinical trials as immunotherapies to potentially fight cancer as well as many other diseases by …
CAR-T cells review: cancer & a critical look at possible uses in aging & COVID-19 Read More »
Something very strange just happened at the journal Nature related to what’s called Muse cells. Kudos to them for dealing with it quickly though. They published an unreviewed research “article” on controversial (perhaps non-existent) stem cells called “Muse cells” that was actually a paid advertisement. After I communicated with the Nature team eventually they ended up …
Nature yanks article that was actually advertisement on controversial stem cells Read More »
Guest post by Lisa Willemse Last month, on this blog, Paul wrote an article about loopholes in the clinicaltrials.gov database that allows for-profit companies to advertise their “therapies” under the guise of a registered clinical trial. This is a real concern for our community, especially those among us who have recommended the clinicaltrials database as …
Super Cells exhibit and why we bother with public outreach Read More »