The Knoepfler lab has formed a team to raise research funds to try to find new treatments and hopefully cures for kids facing a type of mostly fatal brain tumors. Here’s the team page. If you can give us a hand by joining the team or making a donation that’d be wonderful. Any help would be appreciated. …
Help research on kid’s fatal cancers via Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Read More »
Journalist Melinda Beck has a new piece on fat stem cell clinics in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today that includes one very brief quote from me that I believe effectively ends up being an unintentional misquote because of a lack of context. Here in this blog piece I want to provide that important missing …
Providing key context for my quote in WSJ on fat stem cell clinics Read More »
Our new paper in the journal Cell Stem Cell on the large stem cell clinic marketplace in the U.S. documented a wide range of different kinds of clinics, stem cells used, and conditions claimed to be treated, but here I want to focus on the fat stem cell clinics in this post. I’m going to try …
An elderly woman in Australia reportedly died shortly after receiving a fat stem cell transplant. Sheila Drysdale passed away hours after getting an adipose stem cell treatment a few days before Christmas in 2013. That death is now being investigated by the coroner there. Not only is this death in Sydney distressing in it of …
Woman’s death after “no big deal” fat stem cell therapy: coroner investigating Read More »
Last week I blogged about how the FDA had issued a warning letter to a series of three co-owned fat stem cell clinics across the US. What does this FDA action mean on the broader stem cell clinic arena, particularly to those selling fat stem cells? The FDA is still in the process of getting public comment …
FDA warning points to tougher regulation of fat stem cells & clinics Read More »
I was eating my Sunday breakfast and reading the SacBee, when a full-page ad for a stem cell clinic jumped out at me. I dropped my toast onto the plate and grabbed my iPhone to take a picture. The ad is for Nervana Stem Cell Centers in Sacramento. A little research on their website revealed …
Fat & amniotic stem cell clinic Nervana opens in Sacramento Read More »
A patient in Japan has reportedly filed suit against a fat stem cell clinic and has won a judgement of 1.84 million yen in total (about $15,000 USD). The Tokyo District Court reportedly ruled in favor of the patient and most of the award is reimbursement. Authors Ikka, et al report on the case and …
For years I’ve been writing about fat stem cell clinics that sell non-FDA approved stem cell “treatments” to vulnerable patients right here in America. These clinics have been sprouting up like mushrooms across the US and their numbers may be above 200 today overall. As a result perhaps it was inevitable that one would arrive in …
My new ‘neighbor’ in Sacramento: a fat stem cell clinic Read More »
Is it the beginning of the end for dubious American clinics that sell transplants of unproven and non-FDA approved fat stem cell injections? As the year of 2014 was winding down, the FDA issued two key new draft guidances (see here and here) that could prove to be crash diets for these burgeoning fat stem cell clinics. (Update: As of …
FDA to Put Mushrooming Fat Stem Cell Clinics on Crash Diet? Read More »
With a new document released today the FDA is more clearly on a path to regulate dubious stem cell clinics in the US. Update: in the years since this post, the FDA has more concretely defined autologous adipose stem cells as drug products. There are more than 100 such American clinics that are selling stem …
FDA Draft Guidance Views Fat Stem Cells As Drugs Read More »