Exosome therapy is a still-experimental cell therapy approach aimed at treating specific diseases using secretions from cells. It’s novel since most attention on cell therapies has been given to using the actual cells themselves. In addition, this approach is a newer idea than using cells as the drug to treat diseases. Interestingly, the term “cell […]
Fact-checking exosome therapy: costs, risks, & lack of data Read More »
Each year I metaphorically try to look into a crystal ball for stem cell predictions for the coming year and I did so for 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into my predictions. It actually kind of blew some up. It also raised some interesting questions and dilemmas. For instance, do many
Grading my 20 stem cell predictions for 2020 Read More »
What science and stem cell pubs are you reading right now and what do you hope to get too soon? Sometimes science means getting out in the field. Now there are no wild stem cells out there roaming the fields to catch and analyze, but there are other ways. A couple of my kids and
Weekly reads: Hox, exosome IND app, stem cell quiz, more Read More »
The FDA dropped a lengthy, extremely critical warning letter on a supplier of unproven exosome product called EUCYT Laboratories. For broader context, exosome therapy has somehow burst onto the scene when there’s no good data yet in my view to back up its use in the clinic. The FDA is taking notice with letters already sent
Getting 30 F grades? FDA Strongly Warns Exosome Firm EUCYT Read More »
The FDA has stem cell clinics squarely on its radar screen now and it’s pulling the trigger with many letters going out to this problematic industry. In the past, sometimes years went by with no letters at all or one letter in total to stem cell clinics so this marks a major shift. Background on
Historic spring storm of FDA letters to stem cell clinic industry Read More »
The idea of testing stem cells for COVID-19 may be music to the ears of some folks as an opportunity, but to me from the beginning it sounded mostly like a spaghetti on the wall road to trouble. There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with
Field throws stem cells for COVID-19 like spaghetti on the wall Read More »
It’s been a busy week for the cellular and regenerative medicine space for COVID-19 news with some possible ups including for Mesoblast and some definite downs. Starting with the more positive media buzz with have Mesoblast. Mesoblast made COVID19 news “Thinly traded Mesoblast Limited (NASDAQ:MESO) rockets 51% premarket on average volume in reaction to its announcement of an
COVID-19 cellular medicine buzz: Mesoblast, FTC hammer, more Read More »
When the number of stem cell clinical studies and trials listed for COVID-19 first started spiraling upward it seemed likely that stem cell clinics and other firms in that arena would get interested. I thought that we’d see the unproven regenerative medicine coronavirus bandwagon quickly grow. Unfortunately, there are reasons to be increasingly concerned here. For instance,
As clinics buzz about coronavirus, COVID19 patient given non-FDA-approved exosomes? Read More »
Time to sell exosome therapies to patients? No. Some stem cell clinics and related firms are looking for new ways to make profits and toward that goal a few have latched onto the legitimate buzz around exosome research. What are exosomes? Imagine if you could bubble up a pea-sized sphere off your skin full of
As exosome work advances, clinics pitch unproven therapies to patients Read More »
University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner has been threatened with a lawsuit by a stem cell clinic-related business. Lawsuit threats in this arena come up every so often and as much as they are unpleasant realities, they can also reveal some important aspects of the stem cell arena. Ars Technica reported yesterday that Leigh’s recent paper
Stem cell clinic-related biz threatens researcher with lawsuit, wants retraction Read More »