When patient families reach out to me, one of the most common questions is whether stem cells for autism offer real hope. The short answer at this time remains “no”. Of course, it’s not as simple as just “no” because there isn’t enough data to be sure, but there is reason for major skepticism about …
Why I am still very skeptical about stem cells for autism Read More »
What’s the scoop on stem cells for autism? Could stem cells make a real difference for autism patients and their families? CNN has a big, high-profile new article out today on the Duke stem cell trial for autism that has been ongoing for a while and I’m wondering how good a job CNN did on …
On Duke stem cells for autism trial, did new CNN article hit the mark? Read More »
In 2014, I reported on a groundbreaking, but debated Duke stem cell-based clinical trial being launched for autism. Where does that trial stand today? (note that as of 2018-2020 I am very skeptical about stem cells for autism) The cord blood trial has continued. It is led by Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, whom I interviewed about cord blood stem …
Upbeat Update from Duke on Stem Cell Autism Trial, but Questions Remain Read More »
Is there real promise of stem cells for autism? At this point the jury remains out on that question, but a growing number of kids are nonetheless getting such “treatments” at for-profit dubious clinics. Academic clinical researchers are interested in this area as well. Still, the potential use of stem cells to treat autism is …
Duke Launches Large, Debated Stem Cells for Autism Trial Read More »
There is a critical need for treatments for children with autism. 2020 update: see this more recent post on my thinking on stem cells for autism. About a year ago I wrote about a clinical trial at Sutter Health in Sacramento that was approved by the FDA for stem cells for autism. At that time …
Why I do not believe in stem cells for autism today Read More »
There has been a lot of attention about a Sutter clinical trial to use adult stem cells for the treatment of autism. I did a post on it here. After more reading, I’m scratching my head even more about the hypothesis at the heart of that trial, but I’m no autism expert. Emily Willingham, who knows …
Autism affects millions of children in the U.S. alone; could stem cells for autism help? It is a perplexing spectrum of disorders with “autism” being an umbrella term for a host of related neurological illnesses. The negative impact of autism on our society transcends economics, but has been estimated at 10s of billions of dollars. …
For about as long as I’ve been writing The Niche, people have been asking about stem cells for MS. There’s a huge need for new therapies. While a chemo-based approach with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) looks to work for certain cases of multiple sclerosis (although not yet approved in the US), other cell …
Weekly reads: stem cells for MS, good news x2, extending dog years, Neuralink updates Read More »
In today’s post, I reviewed a stem cell clinic firm called Docere Clinics. In my opinion, there are some concerning issues here and reasons for caution. One type of procedure at Docere is particularly surprising and raises risks in my view. What is Docere Clinics? | What kind of stem cells does Docere use? | What they …
Review of Docere Clinics run by Harry Adelson including total-body injections Read More »
There’s been much discussion about issues related to stem cells in the reproductive space such as human embryo models and differentiating stem cells into gametes, but there’s also interest in stem cell-assisted IVF. In this kind of method, stem cells are employed to make tissue cells such as ovarian stromal cells to support production of …
Weekly reads: stem cell-assisted IVF, Takeda MSC trial, reporters getting stem cells Read More »