Stem cell magic bus cartoon
Reposted from my book, Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide.
Search Results for: stem cell magic
More Duke Autism Center backstory: stem cell ‘magic’ & money
Last week I wrote a long post detailing the troubling multimillion-dollar reverberations between the Duke Autism Center and a for-profit stem cell clinic. The clinic in Panama is The Stem Cell Institute. The potential entanglements raise a bunch of questions and concerns. They center on questionable, unproven autism “treatments”. In Duke’s case, their own clinical …
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Weekly reads: cool olfactory tuft cells, T-cell therapy, NK cells
There’s a fascinating type of olfactory cell. These so-called tuft cells have unusual characteristics, especially for nose cells. I had never heard of them before until reading a new article. The inside of the nose may not seem like a very attractive place but there are cool “nose stem cells” in there. More broadly, there …
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Stem cells & the philosopher’s stone, P53, thyroid organoids
I hadn’t remembered the history of the philosopher’s stone until reading a new review article about stem cells and aging. Here’s the article. Is the philosopher’s stone to rejuvenate blood stem cells an epigenetic regulator? Nature Aging. This preview kind of piece discusses how inhibiting a specific factor called PHF6 can “rejuvenate” HSCs in mice. …
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Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos, & lessons for the stem cell field
When I read about Elizabeth Holmes and her blood testing startup Theranos I see parallels to hucksters in the arena of stem cells and cell therapy. I’m thinking especially of the unproven stem cell clinics out there. It goes farther than that though too, including people who aren’t hucksters at all but get caught up …
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New York wins $5.1 million in suit against Manhattan stem cell clinic
There are so many stem cell clinics out there that it can be hard to keep track of them and the news about them, but a big court victory against a Manhattan stem cell clinic by New York State Attorney General Letitia James is notable for several reasons. Injunction on Park Avenue Stem Cell clinic …
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Duke & Cryo-Cell plan big clinic for unproven infusions of kids
Professor Joanne Kurtzberg’s clinical work at the Duke Autism Center on umbilical cord blood for autism and cerebral palsy (CP) involves a partnership with a publicly-traded cord blood banking firm called Cryo-Cell. Kurtzberg is also the Medical Director at the firm. In addition they have intellectual property in this area. The Duke team’s efforts, including …
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Fact-checking stem cell face cream: less than face value
I remember the first time I ran across an ad for a stem cell face cream and it wasn’t pretty. This was about 10 years ago. The stem cell cream in question made several claims that seemed highly doubtful. In a sense what the cream’s maker was selling was the idea of stem cell-based youth …
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Mesenchymal cells or MSCs: definition, clinical potential, challenges
I confess that I’m old enough to remember when the acronym MSC stood unambiguously for “mesenchymal stem cells”, but should it refer to a broader term like “mesenchymal cells”? The field has moved in that direction. I think that’s the best way to go too and I’ll explain why. The goal of today’s post is …
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Weekend cell biology reads: Mesoblast COVID-19 deal, pubs
The COVID-19 pandemic is tearing through the country right as we are starting into the holiday season, but the wheels of science including cell biology keep going and we keep reading all the great work. What news or papers caught your eye? Here are some of the things I have on my list of reading. …
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