For years I have been working to educate the community about the predatory stem cell clinics out there. These clinics prey on vulnerable patients and their families. The clinics use hope as a marketing tool. A weapon. As the number of such clinics has mushroomed in the US and elsewhere the risk to both patients …
Predatory stem cell clinics are winning: what can we do? Read More »
A stem cell biotech in the news this week was one that had mostly flown under the radar previously with aim to zap cancer stem cells. Stemcentrx has a focus on killing cancer stem cells as a novel approach to treating cancer. Antonio Regalado had a nice article yesterday on the company. He reports that Stemcentrx has …
Can Stemcentrx thrive as a biotech killing cancer stem cells? Read More »
Stemedica announced it is teaming up with UC San Diego (UCSD) to do stem cell research. This fits with an increasing trend in the stem cell arena is the teaming up of clinical partners with very different backgrounds and priorities. For instance, academic institutions are more often working together with for-profit stem cell clinics. Another branch …
Muddier stem cell waters: Stemedica teams up with UCSD doc? Read More »
One of the many interesting ways in which “stem cells” are named in different languages around the world is “mother cells”. For example, in Spanish, you can learn more about these “mother cells” here in ¿Qué son las células madre? On Mother’s Day it is worth thinking about where the stem cell field stands at this …
Stem cells on Mother’s Day, clinical trials, and more Read More »
Stem cell biotech company Bioheart ($BHRT) has had a rough 2015 so far. Could this year be a decisive, negative tipping point for the company? It has a number of clinical trials going, but from my view things seem increasingly uncertain. An oddity amongst stem cell biotechs, Bioheart and its leadership have at times seemed to toy …
By Jane Langille A few weeks ago, I wrote to Dr. Paul Knoepfler after reading his book Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide because I was intrigued by his stem cell theory of aging. I wondered if his theory might mean that someone who mobilized and donated hematopoietic cells might be shortening their own lifetime supply. After …
Risks for Healthy PBSC Donors? One Family’s Powerful Experience Read More »
Some American stem cell clinics that operate without FDA approval can give the appearance of being in the mainstream of academic stem cell research. Sometimes they go a step further to hint at or even say that they have some kind of federal approval as we saw in the past with the Stem.md website. Why …
Spock was always my favorite Star Trek character, and even if Leonard Nimoy was not Spock, it seemed to me that there was much of Nimoy in Spock. And for many of us scientists there was some of Nimoy and Spock in us too. The news of Nimoy’s death was a bit of a shock …
Could Spock Style Stem Cells Have Saved Leonard Nimoy? Read More »
A new stem cell clinical trial for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Canada is raising hopes amongst patients and researchers. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the trial will be led by Dr. Mark S. Freedman (pictured, photo from Ottawa Hospital), director of the multiple sclerosis research unit at The Ottawa Hospital and “The Canadian trials which …
Landmark New Stem Cell Trial for Multiple Sclerosis Raises Hopes Read More »
When I started blogging in 2010 the stem cell arena was a very different place including the fact I could count the number of US stem cell clinics on one hand. This blog, called The Niche for many years, was just “Knoepfler Stem Cell Blog” back then. Also, back then the hot topic was the …
Stem cell clinics, FDA, & giant, unapproved for-profit human experiments Read More »