I recently interview Arnold Caplan, the father of the MSC field, and published part 1 of the interview (you can read it here). Today in part 2 we cover more topics of great importance related to MSCs including propagation, placebos, and patients as well as publishing. A hot topic in the stem cell world more […]
Interview with Arnold Caplan Part 2 Read More »
Allan Robins of Viacyte (pictured at left–sorry for the fuzzy image) and Paul Simmons of Mesoblast presented this morning at the CIRM Grantee Meeting. Both talks were outstanding. Robins went first. He started by saying how Viacyte had a productive pre-IND meeting with the FDA last year. I believe a target for them is to
Viacyte & Mesoblast present at CIRM Meeting Read More »
Over the last few weeks, I have enjoyed talking with and interviewing Dr. Allan Wu, of The Morrow Institute on stem cell cosmetic procedures. I was impressed greatly by his talk at the World Stem Cell Summit last year. Dr. Wu is a fellowship trained Surgical Molecular Biologist with a background in Molecular Embryology and a board
Interview with Regenerative Surgeon, Dr. Allan Wu Read More »
It is always exciting when a biomedical technology as revolutionary as iPS cells is on the cusp of being used in patients for the first time. In the last few days stories have reported about how a proposed clinical trial based on iPS cells has completed several regulatory steps and is closer to starting. This
The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell field has been red hot over the approximately first half dozen years of its existence from 2006-2011. However, as I blogged about here part way through 2012, it was showing signs of cooling off a bit in terms of the shear output of publications. It turns out that now
IPS cell field milestone: 2012 is first year with fewer publications than previous Read More »
Recently, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducted a review of the California Stem Cell Agency, CIRM. IOM has now released a quite lengthy report that makes a number of recommendations on various issues. You can also read a short summary here. Unfortunately, I think that many of the IOM recommendations would be harmful to CIRM
IOM misses the boat on CIRM board Read More »
Businessweek just published a very long, interesting article on Celltex by Susan Berfield yesterday. I was happy to talk with Susan at length about the key issues and be quoted in the article. See image at left of two key Celltex leaders, David Eller, CEO of Celltex, and Stan Jones above (Photograph by Thomas Prior
Nuggets and pyrite in Businessweek article on Celltex Read More »
Today, a judge issued a complex, temporary restraining order (PDF here, provided by Celltex) regarding Texas stem cell company Celltex and Human Biostar Inc (HBI)/Biostar, former partners who are now in conflict and have sued each other. For more background see here, here, and here. Note that while both parties have sued each other, the judge’s ruling
A scientist named Dr. Rongxiang Xu has, according to the newspaper The Australian, sued the Nobel Prize Committee for giving the award to Yamanaka and Gurdon and not him. Xu is quoted in the article that he “discovered ‘regenerative cells’ in 1984. The suit filed in S. California, alleges libel and unfair competition. The Australian
Chinese scientist sues Nobel Committee for defamation over awards to Yamanaka and Gurdon Read More »
Celltex is a stem cell company in Texas most well known for Guv Rick Perry’s stem cell transplant. The Celltex business model is to isolate, amplify, and bank patients’ stem cells for subsequent treatment by physicians (for more background including on the FDA role see here and here). Until the last few weeks, an important element
Celltex and former partner RNL Bio/Biostar sue each other: what’s going on? Read More »