For more than 3 months I’ve been doing a tracking poll on the sentiments of the readers of this blog about STAP stem cells. The question is “Do you believe in STAP Stem Cells?” The result are summarized in the graph above. The latest poll results from period #9 are somewhat of a surprise. The […]
Does Europe Know Something About STAP Cells That We Don’t? Latest Poll Results Read More »
What’s the latest on the now two-week-old STAP stem cell saga? More preliminary data from around the world. People continue to deposit their data into our crowdsourcing page with 8 reports so far and I know some of them are from top-notch labs. Only one of them is even slightly encouraging with a report of
STAP stem cell update: more prelim data, missing data, & 2011 paper problems Read More »
Need a new liver, pancreas, or other vital organ, then I’ll 3D print one right up for you…that is in about 10 years. My intern Lakshmi did a great job on her guest piece last week on the promise of 3D printing in stem cell-based bioengineering including organ and tissue production. It’s an incredibly exciting area of
Want to 3D Print Yourself a New Organ? Key Challenges Read More »
What if you could reprogram cells inside of an organism to a different fate and, for instance, make IPS cells? We can, right? But when most of us think about making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, we imagine it all happening in a little plastic dish in our labs or in our colleague’s labs, not
Stem cell journal club: dishing on Nature paper on making iPS cells inside mice Read More »
Some stem cell clinics are pressuring their own patients into potentially breaking federal law through something like smuggling. A big problem for certain clinics is how to bring the paying American customer (i.e. the patient) and the biological product that they are selling derived from the patient’s stem cells together outside the reach of the
Patient Advisory: Sneaking Stem Cells Out of USA May Be Illegal Smuggling Read More »
What the heck is going on with Intellicell Biosystems, Inc. (SVFC, also SVFCE), a stem cell corporation run by Dr. Steven Victor? Why are some on Wall Street seeming so bullish on the company lately? What’s the real story and the facts? What is the key background on this company? Wall Street has been buying
Wall Street Weirdness Over Stem Cell Biotech Intellicell (SVFC) Read More »
With all the excitement over the potential of stem cells to transform medicine, a key bottleneck is physician training. Just how many doctors in the entire US have years of real experience and training in clinical use of stem cells….hmmm, let’s see….I can only think of a few in the whole country. Yes, it’s really
Crash course stem cell training for docs puts patients at risk Read More »
I’ve written in the past (see here, here, and parody here on HuffPost) about how stem cell sports medicine is a dangerous thing. It continues to grow in popularity. There’s a new piece out now saying that Ultimate Fight Championship President Dana White went on a stem cell tourism trip to Germany for a treatment
Snake oil stem cell sports medicine: A-Rod, Kobe, Dana White Read More »
I’m a UC system employee, but I really hate the new UC logo. Look below on the left is our old logo and now the new one on the right. I haven’t found a single person who likes the new logo or thinks the change was wise, but what exactly does this new logo seem
Take funny poll on what new UC logo most symbolizes to you Read More »
Patients ask me all the time about stem cell treatments. Some are curious. Some have already had treatments. Others are very seriously considering a treatment, but haven’t done so yet. Some are open-minded. Some are not. Some are angry with me for my track record of criticizing for-profit, unlicensed clinics offering stem cell treatments. In