The other day I was talking with some folks about stem cell policy on Zoom, which was great, but one phrase from them jumped out at me and gave me a laugh. “Joe Rogan is the Gwyneth Paltrow for bros.” It also just rings true to me. Some readers of The Niche may remember that …
Weekly reads: Joe Rogan, stem cell, diet, clinics, more Read More »
The stem cell field lost a great scientist and friend this week with the passing of Meri Firpo from metastatic breast cancer. I’m going to post a tribute to Meri from several of us sometime this coming week. I’m in a bit of a somber mood but still trying to write, read, and do all …
Weekly stem cell reads: COVID, tail regeneration, aging 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’m taking a short break today from working on a big grant to put out this weekly reads post including on Sox transcription factors, cord blood paper controversy, and other interesting papers such as one on CTCF and chromatin domains after mitosis that really struck me. I can actually see blue sky today here in …
Weekly reads: CTCF, Sox transcription factors, Clinic fires back, more 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 »
The International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy or ISCT held a really interesting webinar yesterday on the FDA and unproven stem cell clinics. It was focused on the expiration of the FDA’s discretionary period on unproven stem cell clinics. What will the FDA do now? The webinar included some ideas and also quite a …
New data on stem cell clinics, INDs, & more including from FDA itself 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 »
The journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine has a long track record of publishing great work. I also have a lot of respect for the editors there and I’ve published there myself. But a few recent events have sparked concerns including over possible undisclosed conflicts of interest in some papers there about cord blood for autism. …
Cord conflicts at the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine Read More »
Does it make any sense medically or scientifically to use stem cell therapy for pain or neuropathy? There isn’t much solid evidence that this is a good way to go. However, there’s a vast scope of research ongoing in this area. Stem cell clinics have been earning millions of dollars each year selling this idea …
Fact-check of stem cell therapy for pain & neuropathy Read More »
Stem cell clinics violating federal regulations have been a major problem for the FDA. Next month the FDA faces a historic moment on this problem. A grace period for clinics to become FDA compliant ends in May. Even so, it appears that hundreds of clinics will remain non-compliant after that. Some of the worst clinics …