Over at Health in the Global Village, Leigh Turner yesterday published an excellent piece updating us all on the latest news on Korean stem cell company RNL BIo (알앤엘바이오) and its leader, Dr. Jeong Chan Ra (라정찬 ). Addition: The story was reported in several Korean news outlets including Hani here. A video here by MBC News of Korea, one …
Jeong Chan Ra Arrest: Can RNL Bio (알앤엘바이오) Survive? Read More »
I have some interest in robotic surgery. About three and a half years ago I had surgery for prostate cancer and my surgeon used the da Vinci robotic surgery device made by Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG). At the time, da Vinci seemed new and exciting, but the device and the company have become more well-known …
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Gets Problematic FDA Inspection Report Read More »
When you want to both know the real history of the pluripotent stem cell-based biotech industry and perspectives on its future, there are only a handful of people to turn to and one of them is definitely Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime. I’m doing a several part series of blog posts on a lengthy …
BioTime CEO Mike West Interview Part 2: Geron & hESC Read More »
Is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on the road to cure Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using stem cells and specifically MSCs? Some folks seem to think it’s quite possible, but I remain skeptical. Still there have been some interesting developments. ACT has a relatively new patent filing for a mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) product that was just …
ACT patent filing for MSCs: of Dancing Mice & Multiple Sclerosis Read More »
By Jeanne Loring. On Wednesday afternoon at the ISSCR meeting in Boston, Jamie Thomson gave a talk about the history of human pluripotent stem cells. There were probably only a dozen people in the audience of around 3,000 who were working on human ES cells around the same time that Jamie and Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor were …
Jeanne Loring’s Thought-Provoking Guest Post on Jamie Thomson’s ISSCR Talk Read More »
Human cloning is not so far-fetched any more. Cloning of the Star Wars variety where new copies of people (although they would be babies, not adults of course at first) are produced is something I believe that we’ll see in the next 1-2 decades. Why would anyone bother to clone? Fame. Money. Vanity. There are …
Fertility clinic floats idea of human cloning for infertility Read More »
People have been confused about human cloning issues in the last few weeks on a number of levels. The confusion has come along with the excitement, concern, and increased interest in cloning lately since the lab of Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov reported a few weeks back in Cell the astonishing feat of successful human embryonic stem …
Baldness can teach us something about blogging? You might be surprised! My mission with this blog is to responsibly use its influence for good for educational outreach to help people learn about stem cells. Can this blog make a difference? Does it have any influence? It seems so. Blogging is a lot more powerful than …
Today’s post is an interview I did with Dr. Van Bokkelen covering 10 questions. Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen is Chairman and CEO of Athersys, Inc., a company that has focused heavily on stem cells and regenerative medicine for more than a decade. For more on Dr. Van Bokkelen’s background see additional bio section at the end of …
Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has confirmed that one of the patient in a clinical trial that it is running for treatment of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, has shown a striking improvement in vision. The patient reportedly had 20/400 vision prior to treatment and now has 20/40 vision after treatment. ACT uses an …
Striking improvement in vision in one ACT trial participant Read More »