By Jeanne Loring A stem cell anniversary: 18 years ago today that the US initiated funding of human embryonic stem cell research. August 9, 2001 was a big day for me. George W. Bush was the US president, and it was an understatement to say that I was not very fond of his policies; but […]
Jeanne Loring: hES cell research, Bush, & her career Read More »
When people discuss “fat stem cells” they usually mean “stromal vascular fraction” or SVF. While references to fat or adipose stem cells can sometimes mean non-SVF materials, these days adipose SVF gets the most attention. But, does anyone have a clear picture of this biologic? Fortunately, it’s starting to come more into focus in recent years
What is stromal vascular fraction or SVF? Read More »
Asilomar is known in the field of biomedical sciences as a great place to go for small meetings. I was there recently for the First Annual Bay Area Stem Cell Conference, which I helped to organize. It was an exciting meeting and all the presenters (except keynoters) were trainees. The amount of great stem cell
Asilomar: great science plus shells, flowers on the beach Read More »
There are many potential causes of erectile dysfunction or ED and a host of ideas about how to treat it. Some approaches to erectile dysfunction are evidence-based and even have been rigorously proven such as the drugs Viagra and Cialis, which increase blood flow to the penis. Depending on the causes of the dysfunction, these
Sexual Medicine Society on Unproven Regenerative Therapies for Erectile Dysfunction Read More »
Yesterday we learned that the FDA issued a warning letter to the cord stem cell firm, Cord for Life. In this warning, the FDA indicated that the firm’s product is actually a drug product and lacks necessary pre-market approvals. In addition, the agency highlighted apparent deviations from CGMP practices. The most important part of the
Perspectives: FDA warns umbilical firm & continues stream of “mini-warning” letters Read More »
Some unproven stem cell clinics just make things up, but when a big medical organization like Seattle’s largest nonprofit health firm, Swedish Medical Group, has a marketing segment on TV with what in my view are odd and inaccurate claims related to regenerative medicine, the negative impact could be far greater. The segment in question
KING 5 TV pulls odd Swedish Medical regen med infomercial off YouTube Read More »
When I was a kid there was this commercial on TV for Chiffon margarine (fake butter) with the slogan, “It’s not nice to fool mother nature!” As a kid I thought it was dumb but kind of funny. A modified version of that mother nature advertising slogan has become a cultural tagline. Don’t mess with
Don’t mess with (mother) Nature: why risk taking on a powerhouse journal? Read More »
Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is now marketing regenerative medicine therapies including some things that in my view are not really scientifically proven to work including via an infomercial. This is part of a bigger trend where more legit medical centers have begun selling regenerative medicine “treatments” that are still being developed. Sometimes they even
‘So you don’t get eyeball in your hand’: Swedish Medical Center ‘infomercial’ Read More »
Could He Jiankui have faked part or all of his CRISPR babies story? If so, how? Why? Or to put it another way, almost everyone seems to be assuming the story is real, but should we be more skeptical? Should we flip things around and assume the story isn’t entirely kosher until proven otherwise? I once
History tells us to be more skeptical of He Jiankui’s CRISPR baby story Read More »
In Parkinson’s Disease patients develop neurological dysfunction as they lose a special kind of brain cell called dopaminergic (or dopamine) neurons. While a number of different approaches to this disease have been studied for decades, nothing has proven particularly successful in slowing its progression. As a result there has been a big need for novel thinking
Hope on Parkinson’s front: Japan IPSC trial 1st patient Read More »