I’m a stem cell researcher and I’m very excited about the potential of stem cell therapies, but my excitement is mostly directed to the future. I’m also a cancer survivor and I know what it is like to get a grave diagnosis and how important hope is and sometimes patients and their families need hope […]
Stem cell treatments: a report from Canada Read More »
A 60 Minutes broadcast shone a light on problems with stem cell tourism. Let’s talk about this and more good news. In a matter of just a few days, we saw three big positive moves against stem cell tourism that will no doubt make a big difference even if there is a long slog ahead
A trifecta of wins against stem cell tourism: 60 Minutes, FDA, and China Read More »
Last night 60 Minutes broadcasted ( you can watch the episode here) a long awaited 2nd segment in their continuing investigation of stem cell fraud. The first segment investigating phony doctors Stowe and Morales led to their ultimate pursuit by the FBI and indictment, aired in a couple years ago. The new episode on stem
Portrait of an alleged stem cell fraud: my thoughts on 60 Minutes episode Read More »
There has been a lot of excitement and media attention over the arrests by the FBI and the indictments of several people on charges related to alleged unlawful stem cell practices. Keep in mind that all these folks are innocent until proven guilty. Anyhow, you might wonder how the FBI got its info, etc? Was
The stem cell informer Read More »
CIRM, the California stem cell agency, has funded hundreds of grants during its relatively short existence. You can do searches of these grants through a handy dandy web portal that CIRM has made available–it’s a very cool tool and I commend CIRM for making it available. I wish the tool had more options however including
Word Cloud of Every CIRM-funded grant yields some surprising insights Read More »
For a long time many of us in the stem cell field have been worried about dubious stem cell treatments, so-called ‘stem cell tourism’. How do we stop it or at least fight back to keep people safe and help them avoid losing what is often their life savings? Many activities related to stem cell
The ultimate antidote to stem cell tourism in the U.S. Read More »
Who is the stem cell fugitive? When I was a kid I loved re-runs of that program The Fugitive. I always knew that Dr. Richard Kimble was innocent. Then in 1993 Harrison Ford starred in a movie based on the TV show, which was a fun one. Now we have a real life fugitive story
The stem cell fugitive: Dr. Lawrence Stowe Read More »
There was another federal indictment just handed down that alleges that one Francisco Morales (aka Dr. Frank Morales) broke the law with stem cells. Allegedly he took umbilical cords (telling patients that they would be used for medical research), facilitated isolation of stem cells, and shipped them out of state to be used in dubious
Indicted alleged stem cell predator Morales & Margolis: any links? Read More »
Who are the stem cell elves? Merry Christmas! You heard me, Merry Christmas! I’m a Democrat and I love Christmas! As we think about the holiday season, it seems appropriate to make our list, just as Santa is doing, of the elves and grinches of the stem cell world. For today on Christmas, let’s forget the
Your definitive Christmas list of stem cell elves Read More »
Each year at this time I start thinking about what the next year will bring for the stem cell field and make predictions. This year is no different and I’ve been pondering what 2012 has in store for us. You can read my predictions for 2011 here and see how I fared. Not too bad, but overly optimistic
Stem cell predictions for 2012: Science, CIRM, ACT, trends Read More »