Search Results for: umbilical cord stem cells

Review of cord banker Viacord: dubious autism claims & other concerns

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 …

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Giostar stem cell clinic chain review, red flags, & lawsuit

Giostar

Some unproven stem cell clinics like one called Giostar have multiple locations sprouting up. To me the concern with that spreading is the potential of multiplying risks to consumers. It can be hard to get a clear take on what these clinics are doing too. What’s in this article What is Giostar? | Giostar review | …

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Fact-checking troubling R3 Stem Cell clinic chain

Map of R3 stem cell clinic locations

I’ve had concerns about an American unproven clinic firm called R3 Stem Cell for many years. They sell unproven stem cell-related “treatments” via dozens of affiliated locations. I put quotes around treatments because in my view there is no good evidence here for claims of treating numerous serious illnesses. The goal of today’s post is …

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Cheating death via regenerative medicine or stem cells?

Cheating-death

How does one go about cheating death? As I get older, fighting aging seems more relevant. Having battled a potentially fatal cancer also gave me a taste of mortality. In biomedical research, it seems like living longer has become an obsession for some recently. Cheating death with cell therapies or other regenerative approaches? Could stem …

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Review of DVC Stem & marketing of unproven therapies

DVC Stem video featuring Lou Ferrigno

A clinic called DVC Stem selling unproven stem cells has popped up prominently on the web recently. It’s a relatively new and in some ways puzzlingly dominant presence on the stem cell section of the Internet. We should pay attention to these kinds of changes on the web. They can impact many people’s healthcare choices, …

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Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos, & lessons for the stem cell field

Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos

When I read about Elizabeth Holmes and her blood testing startup Theranos I see parallels to hucksters in the arena of stem cells and cell therapy. I’m thinking especially of the unproven stem cell clinics out there. It goes farther than that though too, including people who aren’t hucksters at all but get caught up …

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Weekly stem cell reads: COVID kidney, FDA letter, H3.3, EO Wilson

EO Wilson

Happy New Year and get ready for another 364 more days of stem cell excitement and craziness in 2022. In the next day or two I’ll post my predictions for this new year. Recommended reads EO Wilson obit by Carl Zimmer in NYT. Who’s the next EO Wilson or someone like him with such big impact these …

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Grading my 21 stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions for 2021

stem-cell-crystal-ball-300x3001

The world of stem cell research and regenerative medicine is unpredictable but it’s fun to be a part of it and try to do predictions. Each year in late December or early January I make prognostications for the coming year for stem cell research and regenerative medicine. I made 21 such predictions for the current …

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Explainer on 293 or HEK cells and their use in COVID vaccine research

HEK 293 cells Knoepfler Lab

A type of human cells used in research called HEK cells or 293s has been much in the news lately. This is mainly related to COVID-19 vaccine research. There seem to be many misunderstandings about 293 cells. For that reason, I thought I’d do this post to clear things up. I’ve been working with these …

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Questions remain after Stem Cells Translational Medicine retracts clinic pub

The Stem Cell Institute, Panama stem cells

I’ve been concerned that the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine has been publishing some iffy papers from unproven stem cell clinics recently including from a Panama stem cell clinic called the Stem Cell Institute. Back in 2019, I took the unusual step of raising the question of whether a Stem Cells Translational Medicine paper from Neil Riordan, …

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