Research

Stem cell research.

Unapologetic He Jiankui eager for more human germline gene editing with help from tech bros

He Jiankui lab, He Jiankui

For a few years, biophysicist He Jiankui might have been one of the most recognizable scientists on the planet. He made three “CRISPR babies” or gene edited people. However, his gene editing went badly and as best as we can tell his efforts did not result in precision edits. It’s unclear if he had institutional

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ISCT launches new resource on unproven cell & gene therapies

ISCT, ISCT guide

The International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy or ISCT is a great organization in our field. They have launched a new guide to help healthcare providers navigate this complex area. Click on the image below to check it out. This new resource is important because healthcare providers, researchers, and the public need authoritative information.

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Recommended reads: gov scientists fear Trump 2nd term, MYCT1 in HSCs, in vivo editing

Trump

I’ve only met one scientist who was openly a Trump fan, but I’m sure there are more out there. Still, it seems most scientists are no fans of the former president. A new WaPo piece highlights how federal scientists are worrying about a possible second term for the former president. Government scientists & a second

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Google AI overviews on stem cells are a bust so far & endanger public health

stem cells for knees

I’ve been wondering how the new Google AI overviews feature on its search platform would turn out for various stem cell searches. Frankly, I had a bad feeling that Google was going to blow this. Unfortunately, it seems even worse than I anticipated. Let’s go through three examples and talk about why this is so

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Weekly reads: Alzheimer’s & lipid droplets, stem cells for COPD, fecal tx warning, med school teaching

Alzheimer's, lipid droplets Alzheimer's

So many things go wrong during the lead up to clinically-evident Alzheimer’s disease. This complex disease pathway has, in turn, led to a vast array of approaches to try to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s. Most of these efforts one way or another have something to do with the amyloid plaques and tangles that accumulate in the

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Key Mayo Clinic stem cell webpage is overexuberant & outdated

The Mayo Clinic.

The Mayo Clinic does some great research on stem cells and regenerative medicine. However, at times I’ve felt that a few Mayo researchers are overexuberant. This mainly relates to certain not-yet-proven stem cell and related offerings. Fitting with that perception, the Mayo website also has some inaccurate stem cell content that leans toward overstating things.

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The zoo that is stem cells on Reddit

crazy carnival, stem cells on Reddit

Can you learn important things about stem cells on Reddit? Yes, you can, but it’s a wild experience at times. Researchers may often think about stem cells through the lens of traditional routes of communication like academic journals, but laypeople turn elsewhere to learn about regenerative medicine. This includes digging into stem cells on Reddit.

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Man could get 240 yrs for amniotic fluid for knees Medicare scam

A Justice Department press release details how a physician’s assistant (PA) in Texas was convinced of fraud related to amniotic fluid injections. This story tells us some important things about how Medicare handles things versus the FDA approach to such things. Amniotic fluid scam A jury found Ray Anthony Shoulders, a PA at a pain

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Weekly reads: Google, CIRM, young Swedish bone marrow

Google stem cell side effects

For me, this was another week of heavy grant writing but also taking on Google again. How? Over how badly its search engine often performs on stem cell queries. I have a new piece at MedPage Today. It’s focused on the problem of Google Search promoting unproven stem cell clinic websites. Google still prefers stem

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