I’m a stem cell researcher and I’m very excited about the potential of stem cell therapies, but my excitement is mostly directed to the future. I’m also a cancer survivor and I know what it is like to get a grave diagnosis and how important hope is and sometimes patients and their families need hope …
Balancing hope and danger with dubious stem cell treatments: a report from Canada Read More »
Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long week for me and it will continue over the weekend with grants and papers, etc. That’s just par for the course in science. Some of you have seen that I had an article published this week in HuffingtonPost. You can read it here. …
In a matter of just a few days we saw three big positive moves against stem cell tourism that will no doubt make a big difference even if there is a long slog ahead against dubious stem cell clinics trying to exploit patients. First, we had the 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday containing a segment against …
A trifecta of wins against stem cell tourism: 60 Minutes, FDA, and China Read More »
This Sunday 60 Minutes ran an expose piece of sorts on dubious stem cell therapies. The segment primarily focused on Dr. Dan Ecklund and his website “StemTechLabs” in Ecuador. Ecklund was surprised by CBS reporter Scott Pelley during a visit to the U.S. and 60 Minutes ran segments of the interview that seemed very damning …
60 Minutes Stung Stem Cell Doctor Fires Back But Not Convincingly Read More »
Last night 60 Minutes broadcasted ( you can watch the episode here) a long awaited 2nd segment in their continuing investigation of stem cell fraud. The first segment investigating phony doctors Stowe and Morales led to their ultimate pursuit by the FBI and indictment, aired in a couple years ago. The new episode on stem …
Portrait of an alleged stem cell fraud: my thoughts on 60 Minutes episode Read More »
A few years back 60 minutes did an expose on “Drs.” Stowe and Morales who allegedly took money from vulnerable patients in exchange for potentially dangerous and useless stem cell treatments. On Sunday, 60 Minutes will air a new episode going after the stem cell bad guys. The parents of a child that an alleged …
New 60 Minutes Episode on Sunday Takes Down Stem Cell Bad Guys Read More »
There has been a lot of excitement and media attention over the arrests by the FBI and the indictments of several people on charges related to alleged unlawful stem cell practices. Keep in mind that all these folks are innocent until proven guilty. Anyhow, you might wonder how the FBI got its info, etc? Was …
Over the past year the FDA and FBI have stepped up their actions related to sellers of dubious stem cell treatments. Most recently we have seen arrests of “Drs.” Morales and Stowe as well as others. Mr. Stowe, who is not a medical doctor, remains a fugitive of the FBI. Has the FBI now effectively …
My message to sellers of dubious stem cell treatments: time to quit Read More »
As a stem cell researcher and blogger, I hear an earful from ultra-conservatives and GOPers all the time about how immoral or unethical embryonic stem cell research is. Some even haphazardly like to call anyone who works on stem cells names. I also see articles in conservative media outlets like the National Review attacking embryonic …
CIRM, the California stem cell agency, has funded hundreds of grants during its relatively short existence. You can do searches of these grants through a handy dandy web portal that CIRM has made available–it’s a very cool tool and I commend CIRM for making it available. I wish the tool had more options however including …
Word Cloud of Every CIRM-funded grant yields some surprising insights Read More »