I received a score of great nominations for the Stem Cell Person of the Year 2016 Award and have briefly described the twenty nominees below. The point of the award is to honor the top positive stem cell leader who specifically thinks outside the box and takes risks. I’ve started an on-line vote where you can vote once per day for …
20 Nominees for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2016 Award Read More »
The 21st Century Cures Act has some important provisions that would impact the stem cell and regenerative medicine field. What is driving these efforts is a widespread sense that the status quo of regenerative medicine oversight isn’t working very well. I’m talking with key stakeholders and still trying to sort out my thoughts on the …
Perspectives on Cures Act stem cell provisions possible benefits & risks Read More »
One of the hottest topics in the world of stem cells this year has been the REGROW ACT and at a larger level the movement for changes in FDA oversight of investigational regenerative medicine therapies (see my past posts on it here), so the related provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act are stirring much …
Chat with Michael Werner of ARM on Cures Act regenerative medicine provisions Read More »
Concerns over stem cell clinics allegedly causing blindness or other vision problems have been increasing in 2016. If this is in fact happening, the extra sad part of this is that some clinics have claimed that they are doing the opposite: improving vision in patients. What are the concerns? Earlier this year a publicly-traded stem …
2nd lawsuit alleging a U.S. stem cell clinic caused blindness Read More »
Rainbow stem cell clones. From Scientific Reports: NF-kappaΒ-inducing kinase regulates stem cell phenotype in breast cancer. How to harvest stem cells from teeth Stem Cell Transplant Startup With Harvard Tech, Magenta Therapeutics, Gets $48.5M Neurogenic Radial Glia-like Cells in Meninges Migrate and Differentiate into Functionally Integrated Neurons in the Neonatal Cortex (from Cell Stem Cell). Researchers Grow Functioning Human Intestines, Nerves Using Stem …
A feast of post-Thanksgiving stem cell news bites 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 »
I’m hearing more questions from the community about alleged harm from stem cell clinics selling stem cells for a number of vision-related conditions and some concerns include the so-called SCOTS study. I first blogged about SCOTS early this year and back then I myself had questions too. Some commenters then raised concerns or questions about SCOTS in …
SCOTS Study on Stem Cells for Vision: Still Questions as Patient Alleges Harm Read More »
Will Trump trump the FDA? Our President-elect recently released his health care policy agenda and it looks like the FDA is a target in terms of reducing oversight. Over at the Washington Post, Carolyn Johnson has a nice article on this development. One point in the agenda in particular has caught people’s attention as potentially the key …
Trump Has FDA in Crosshairs: Impact on Stem Cell Oversight? Read More »
I appreciate fun linguistic approaches to explaining science such as a good science metaphor and I use them myself at times, but sometimes these end up risking doing much more harm than good. The best or should I say worst example I’ve heard recently is referring to a growth factor called BDNF as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”. …
Risky science metaphor: BDNF as ‘Miracle-Gro for the brain’ Read More »
I’m organizing my own thinking on how Trump’s election will impact science and stem cell/regenerative medicine research in particular and will post on that soon, but for now here are some of the early responses I’ve seen where scientists comment on this big, unexpected event and key questions. These are in addition to the almost …
A collection of scientist responses to Trump election Read More »