Viacord is one of the most well known firms in the for-profit cord blood banking industry. Today’s post is a review of the firm. I see concrete reasons for concern. What is Viacord? | Dubious autism claims | Viacord cost | Overall Review | References What is Viacord? As a cord blood banking firm, Viacord freezes […]
Review of cord banker Viacord: dubious autism claims & other concerns Read More »
When I first learned about the multi-$10 million cord cell clinic deal between Duke and Cryo-Cell I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Duke’s involved in this? The problem: marketing unproven cells for kids Yes, this wasn’t some stem cell clinic operating out of a strip mall seeking to make big money off of injecting
Vice tackles dicey Cryo-Cell Duke mega-million peds clinic plan Read More »
I recently found concerning SEC filings from the biotech Cryo-Cell about a deal it has with a Duke team for infusions of children with unproven umbilical cord cells. This turns out to be a $58 million deal. It relates in a major way to a Duke compassionate use or expanded access program (EAP) that already had raised
FDA should freeze Duke EAP & probe $58 million Cryo-Cell deal linked to it Read More »
The other day I gave a talk in part about stem cell hype and mentioned as an example how the idea of already doing stem cell therapy for autism seems so misguided to me now. On the whole, in my view there are major downsides and risks for autistic kids whose parents are already having
Fact-checking stem cell therapy for autism: still a risky idea Read More »
Professor Joanne Kurtzberg’s clinical work at the Duke Autism Center on umbilical cord blood for autism and cerebral palsy (CP) involves a partnership with a publicly-traded cord blood banking firm called Cryo-Cell. Kurtzberg is also the Medical Director at the firm. In addition they have intellectual property in this area. The Duke team’s efforts, including
Duke & Cryo-Cell plan big clinic for unproven infusions of kids Read More »
Amongst all that is bouncing around within the stem cell clinic maelstrom out there, one thing stands out for me as the most troubling. I’m talking about for-profit experimentation on children, such as injection of kids with unproven stem cells for autism or cerebral palsy by unproven clinics. In my opinion it’s almost always going
Journal erred on Panama clinic stem cell for autism paper Read More »
Stem cells for autism? After watching this area for many years, I’m not sure there’s any “there there”. There are logical reasons to think that certain stem cells might help many specific diseases, but in my view autism isn’t likely to be one of them. I hope I’m wrong, but today at least in 2018,
Stem cells for autism: time to hit pause in 2018? Read More »
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 »
My lab is focused in part on chromatin states in stem cells and cancer including heterochromatin. In fact, my lab’s website is chromatin.com. Heterochromatin is dense, often inactive chromatin. By H&E staining and electron microscopy, heterochromatin looks dark compared to the rest of the nucleus, largely composed of euchromatin. Toward the end of my postdoc
Weekly reads: heterochromatin, H3.3, Mesoblast bump Read More »
It’s a big challenge to get a cell therapy approved by the FDA and if you look at my list of FDA-approved stem cell therapies, it’s not as long as we might hope. FDA OK on cell therapy from Gamida Cell For this reason, it was excellent news to see that the FDA approved a
Weekly reads: FDA nod on new cell therapy, gray hair, pong-playing cells Read More »