I’m flying out to San Diego today for the World Stem Cell Summit. I’ve been attending this great meeting every year lately and I always return home feeling more informed and energized. Here’s this year’s agenda. At the meeting, I will be doing a book signing tomorrow, Wednesday December 4th, from noon-2pm near the WSCS …
A big, fat elephant in “the room” of the commercial stem cell field today is something called stromal vascular fraction or SVF, made from human fat tissue or adipose. If you care at all about stem cells or the stem cell field more generally, you had better educate yourself on SVF. You can learn a …
Law and Order SVF: what is stromal vascular fraction? Read More »
Can Google’s new anti-aging company, Calico, have you Googling at age 140? Don’t sell your burial plot just yet. The idea of anti-aging has been around for a very long time and efforts to combat aging have spanned millennia largely without any success so Calico (apparently short for California Life Company, which sounds more like …
Has anti-aging finally come of age with Google’s Calico? Read More »
What’s the deal with this week’s FDA Warning Letter to 23andMe? First some background. I’m a researcher who studies stem and cancer cell genomics and epigenomics. I’m also a human being who has battled prostate cancer and is curious about my genome. With this background, I decided some time ago to take the plunge and experience what …
23andMe and the FDA: Perspectives on Warning Letter Read More »
The World Alliance Forum held a really great meeting yesterday in SF about the future of stem cells. Below, Johnathon Anderson has a great guest post summarizing the meeting. The collective brain power in the room was pretty staggering. The meeting brought together stem cell leaders from academia, industry, startup incubators and funding agencies. The purpose …
Guest Post on the Future of Stem Cells: World Alliance Forum Meeting Read More »
On November 18 in Washington, D.C. the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences will hold a workshop on stem cell therapies. The meeting (agenda here) is also co-sponsored by ISSCR. I have some major concerns about this meeting. In principle and in a general sense, I believe this is the kind of meeting and …
Puzzling Institute of Medicine stem cell workshop Read More »
There is a critical need for treatments for children with autism. 2020 update: see this more recent post on my thinking on stem cells for autism. About a year ago I wrote about a clinical trial at Sutter Health in Sacramento that was approved by the FDA for stem cells for autism. At that time …
Why I do not believe in stem cells for autism today Read More »
The Australian stem cell biotech Mesoblast (MSB) has reportedly reached a deal with the American stem cell biotech Osiris (OSIR) to buy Osiris’ mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) unit. This is a big development in the MSC field. Osiris and Mesoblast are two major players in this particular subfield of the stem cell world so this deal, …
Mesoblast (MSB) buys Osiris (OSIR) stem cell unit Read More »
I’m really looking forward to this Saturday’s Berkeley Stem Cell Meeting. You should go! Tickets are just $5 and the lineup is great. This looks to be one of the best stem cell meetings in Northern California this year. Below is my interview with the organizers giving some background and perspectives on the meeting. 1. …
Interview With Organizers of Tomorrow’s Berkeley Stem Cell Meeting Read More »
Most of the time we all get to interact electronically via blogs, email, Twitter, and so forth. There’s definitely something to be said for in-person interactions though. This coming week I’ll be at two events. First, on Thursday Oct. 10 there will be an event I’ll give a talk on stem cells at the UC …
Two upcoming stem cells events I’ll be at this week Read More »