I’m a seismologist at the University of Tokyo, where I’ve been since 1984. I was the first tenured foreign faculty member in the history of our university. If you look at my publication list on the Researcher ID site you can see that my main research recent interests are modeling seismic wave propagation and analyzing […]
Seismologist from Japan looks at the STAP cells mess Read More »
Stem cell biotech, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock symbol ACTC), has started off 2014 with indications that it is in a phase of rapid evolution. Some changes, such as today’s announced departure of now former CEO Gary Rabin (see my 2013 interview with him here), are already in the public domain, but other big developments
Big Changes Unfolding at Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) Read More »
Stem Cells for Alzheimer’s Disease? Below is an excerpt focused on Alzheimer’s Disease from my new book on stem cells. Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide, which is targeted to a broad audience of people interested in stem cells. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is one of the most devastating illnesses. It destroys the brain, which shrinks over
Book Excerpt: Stem Cells for Alzheimer’s Disease–Are We There yet? Read More »
Osiris, a cellular therapy biotech, recently received a so-called “untitled letter” from the FDA. The text of the letter seems on the whole negative in my opinion, while the company’s public reaction to the letter on the other hand could be seen paradoxically as rather cheery. What’s going on here? With Halloween coming, one has
Osiris FDA Letter: Trick or Treat? Read More »
The voting is over and we have our top 12 finalists for the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. You can see the final votes results below. It’s definitely an intriguing list that reflects the range of important areas in the field today. I can say without any hesitation that all 12 of
Dozen Finalists for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 Read More »
Nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 closed last night and I ended up with a remarkable list of 30 nominees. I have included a few sentences about each one below, often taking verbiage directly from the nominator. The online voting on these nominees will start soon. The top vote getters will move
ABC News just reported that the FDA is allgedly “cracking down” on the publicly traded company, MiMedx (MDXG), which sells a placental derivative touted for healing powers. The Wall Street Journal is also following the story. According to ABC News: MiMedx is a publically traded, for-profit company that takes donated human placentas — solicited via a website featuring
MiMedx (MDXG) placental “stem cell magnet” drugs attract FDA attention and lawsuit Read More »
I recently conducted an interview with Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg of Duke. You can see Part 1 of the interview here. Today in Part 2, I asked Dr. Kurtzberg some broader questions about the stem cell field. 1. How concerned are you about non-compliant stem cell interventions here in the US as well as stem cell
Joanne Kurtzberg interview, Part 2: clinics & stem cell field future Read More »
In about a month my new book, Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide, should be available as an e-book from the publisher and from Amazon. It’s available for pre-order now at Amazon here. The “real” book (i.e. the one made of paper) should be available in September. The book costs $29. Any writers out there interested in doing
Stem Cells An Insider’s Guide: More on My New Book Read More »
Remember Stemage? They are the cosmetic company with Kathy Ireland as their spokesperson whose anti-aging cream includes extracts from human stem cells. In Part 1 of this blog series on Stemage I gave some key background and raised some important questions. I also sent some questions to the company and now more recently to the
Stemage Stem Cell Anti-Aging Cream 2.0: Interview with Dr. David Scharp Read More »