The late Ted Harada, who was my 2016 Stem Cell Person of the Year, was a powerful patient advocate for stem cells and for ALS patients. Each year I give out a Stem Cell Person of the Year Award including a $2,000 prize that I provide myself to the winner, and Ted won that last …
Honoring stem cell advocate Ted Harada, $2,000 donation to Emory ALS Center Read More »
Patient advocate Ted Harada is the recipient of this year’s Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. Congrats also to the runner-up, HD patient advocate Judy Roberson. The three of us together are pictured at left. You can read about the 20 nominees here and see the vote results that picked the 10 finalists here. …
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2016: Patient Advocate Ted Harada Read More »
It takes a great deal of courage to participate in a clinical trial, patients who make that choice are heroes in my book and one such hero with stem cells was Ted Harada who had ALS. Sadly, Ted passed away from a brain tumor called glioblastoma last month. When enrolling in a trial, you just never …
Tribute to Ted Harada, pioneering stem cell trial participant and ALS advocate Read More »
This is Part 2 of my interview with ALS and stem cell advocate, Ted Harada. You can read Part 1 of my talk with Ted on where things stand today with ALS, the FDA, and the Ice Bucket Challenge. What’s your opinion of the “Right To Try” law in Colorado and the concept more generally? …
Interview with Ted Harada Part 2: Right To Try, Neuralstem, and How He’s Doing Read More »
Ted Harada is a wonderful patient advocate for the stem cell field and for the development of safe and effective stem cell products to treat ALS. Ted has ALS and received stem cell-based treatments for it with surprising, very encouraging results. The Harada family is pictured at left with Ted, his wife Michelle as well as …
Ted Harada Interview Part 1: Stem Cells for ALS, More Read More »
A new paper on stem cells for paralysis from a Mayo Clinic team has sparked a bit of legitimate hope but also some hype in the media. The publication was in Nature Communications. It is entitled “Intrathecal delivery of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in traumatic spinal cord injury: Phase I trial.” The approach was direct injection …
Perspectives on new stem cells for paralysis paper & media coverage Read More »
As both a scientist who works on stem cells, cancer, and CRISPR, and a research advocate I’ve been fortunate to meet many patient advocates over the years. Some have been participants in clinical trials themselves. Benefits & risks of clinical trial participation It is very sobering to find out that a clinical trial participant has …
Weekly reads: death in CRISPR trial, sickle cell, nose picking & dementia, epilepsy Read More »
The regular emails and phone calls I get from patients asking questions about stem cell therapy are a powerful reminder of the fact that research in our field can be very personal. Sometimes individuals who receive experimental stem cell therapy (or other cell therapies) and seem to have a positive outcome can end up becoming …
A new right-to-try company called Beacon of Hope is stirring some intense discussion. State and federal right-to-try laws could potentially change the fabric of how many investigational studies are conducted. That may happen through firms like Beacon of Hope. However, we don’t know much about the firm. I’m hoping to help change that. Today’s post …
Richard Garr Q&A on his new Right-To-Try firm Beacon of Hope Read More »
The votes are in and the community has picked its top 10 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award finalists. Both the 20 nominees and now the 10 finalists are a diverse group. The finalists include six women and four men, from five countries and four different continents. We also got votes from readers of the blog …
10 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award Finalists 2017 Read More »