COVID-19 Archives - Page 2 of 6

Fact-check: F grade for irresponsible stem cell COVID-19 cure piece

February 10, 2021 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 4 Comments

At times there’s been seriously bad journalism covering COVID-19 itself including implications of various things being a COVID cure. Of course, media coverage of stem cell research itself sometimes ends up being a train-wreck of hype too. More recently we’ve seen irresponsible journalism also around the specific idea of stem cells for COVID-19, but sometimes […]

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Lawmaker indicted for selling fake stem cells for COVID & more

February 4, 2021 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

patricia derges indictment for fake stem cells sm

A grand jury indicted Missouri state representative and assistant physician Patricia Derges for allegedly selling and injecting patients with fake stem cells. The injection was reportedly just of amniotic fluid, but Derges allegedly claimed it was a stem cell treatment. NBC News was one of several media outlets that broke the story here after the

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2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award goes to Stephen Hahn

January 20, 2021 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

Today’s post announces the winner of the 2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award. Since this is the inaugural year for The Screamers, I’m just going to give out one main award: Overall Worst Science Hype. Science Hype Award to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Remarkably, the winner of the overall The Screamers Award for Science Hype

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21 Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine 2021 Predictions

January 12, 2021 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 6 Comments

In any given field of biomedical science like stem cell research and regenerative medicine, it’s very useful if you can accurately predict the future. It seems, though, that predictions are far more difficult within the more exciting and rapidly-changing fields. The field of stem cells and regenerative medicine fits that bill. Past stem cell research

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Small umbilical cord stem cell COVID-19 trial: sign of efficacy?

January 5, 2021 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 13 Comments

A new paper today in Stem Cells Translational Medicine on a small COVID-19 Phase 1/2a trial using an umbilical cord stem cell product reports a surprising degree of possible efficacy. What’s the scoop here and could there be some hype in the media about this new study such as one of the authors describing the

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Why I’m planning to get a COVID-19 RNA vaccine: low, mostly theoretical risks

November 18, 2020 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 13 Comments

I’m not a virologist, but I’m still getting asked these days about what the risks might be from the new generation of RNA vaccines for COVID-19. Approaching this question instead as a biologist and genetics/genomics researcher, I can see a handful of at least hypothetical risks. Below I discuss these possible risks and why I’m

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Stem cell reads: liver buds, MSCs, SMARC, more

November 1, 2020 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 4 Comments

It’s fitting, given the edginess over the election, that Halloween is falling only a few days before election day so here is a list of recommended stem cell reads for you to dive into some biomedical science. Liver buds from stem cells Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived liver buds with chemically defined and

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Arkansas adds to wave of state AG actions vs. stem cell clinics

October 15, 2020 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

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It’s encouraging to see that the states including now Arkansas via their attorney generals (or is it attorneys general?) are taking more action against stem cell clinic firms, but the big scope of AG action has somewhat surprised me. Arkansas AG suit The latest AG action on a stem cell clinic type firm comes from

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Weekly reads on organoids, COVID, CRISPR, cold chromatin, more

October 11, 2020 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

As a researcher, is there ever enough time to get to everything that you want to read especially in newer areas like stem cells, organoids, and CRISPR, without even including non-scientific reads like Shakespeare or a new novel or something like that? Hopefully, putting together lists of recommended reads like today’s post is helpful. I

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