Search Results for: patient deaths

Recommended regenerative medicine reads plus COVID-19 stem cell hype

Universal-Cells

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic there are still some research things we can do including data analysis as well as reading new papers and media articles on science, including regenerative medicine. If the weather’s good and you have wi-fi (or you print articles still on paper) you can even do this out in the fresh air …

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Monkey-pig chimeras pub discouraging for similar human research toward organ transplants

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Michael Le Page over at The New Scientist reports on a new paper describing the birth of monkey-piglet chimeras. Unlike most such primate embryo chimeras formed in research in the past, these were allowed to be born. A litter of ten from the new monkey-pig research, two of which were chimeras, all rather quickly died …

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As 2 FDA stem cell clinic suits slowly unfold, more action needed now

salvador-dali-the-persistence-of-memory-throw-blankets

For me there was a sense of “finally” when just under 3 months ago the FDA filed suits via the DOJ against 2 stem cell clinic firms, U.S. Stem Cell (and its affiliate U.S. Stem Cell Clinic, collectively referred to here as USRM) and California Stem Cell Treatment Center/Cell Surgical Network (collectively referred to here as …

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Grading 3 stem cell media reports on clinical science: vision, MS, & paralysis

Rosenzweig-et-al-Nature-Medicine-2018-part-of-Fig.-1

What is stem cell media? When us scientists hear the phrase “stem cell media” we usually think about the liquid food that we feed our stem cells in the lab, which resembles a kind of nutrient-rich Kool-aid, but another kind of stem cell media consists of the news coverage of stem cells. This other kind …

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Stem cells for the flu? Pondering PR email, frailty data from Longeveron

Tompkins-Figure-2A

Stem cells for flu? For me, that idea is new. Some months back there was buzz about the stem cell biotech Longeveron related to its report on early trial data on testing infusions of mesenchymal stem cells for frailty in the aged. Frailty that pops up in some aging folks can manifest in a variety …

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Stem cells for scleroderma, new NEJM article reports promise

stem-cells-scleroderma-all-cause-mortality

The idea of using stem cells for scleroderma seems a bit more promising today. A new NIH-funded study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) gives some hope for the use of a combination of a specific type of myeloablation and a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). This approach yields improved long-term …

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Kudos to Dr. Oz for stellar stem cell clinic show: time for more action

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For me it’s been a wild week of grant and paper writing, grant review, going over data, and more, but finally I had a chance to watch this week’s Dr. Oz show on stem cell clinics in full last night and I give it an A+ grade. A show producer went undercover with an MS patient to a …

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Woman’s death after “no big deal” fat stem cell therapy: coroner investigating

Macquarie-Stem-Cells

An elderly woman in Australia reportedly died shortly after receiving a fat stem cell transplant. Sheila Drysdale passed away hours after getting an adipose stem cell treatment a few days before Christmas in 2013. That death is now being investigated by the coroner there. Not only is this death in Sydney distressing in it of …

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Steven Pinker interview: case against bioethocrats & CRISPR germline ban

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CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology is red-hot right now and I’ve been doing interviews with various thought leaders on it, which today includes Steven Pinker. This technology has great power for research in the lab and there are hypothetical transformative clinical applications of CRISPR too. The latter efforts could include experimental attempts at reversal of disease-causing …

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