When I think of the promise of stem cells for diabetes, the privately held California stem cell firm ViaCyte is the first biotech that comes to mind now. It has promising stem cell clinical trial work building. Today’s post is a new interview with the company’s CEO Paul Laikind. For past posts on ViaCyte see here, which …
ViaCyte Interview on Diabetes Stem Cell Trials & Cool Role of Gore-Tex Tech Read More »
The late Ted Harada, who was my 2016 Stem Cell Person of the Year, was a powerful patient advocate for stem cells and for ALS patients. Each year I give out a Stem Cell Person of the Year Award including a $2,000 prize that I provide myself to the winner, and Ted won that last …
Honoring stem cell advocate Ted Harada, $2,000 donation to Emory ALS Center Read More »
New human clinical trials using derivatives of pluripotent stem cells in China for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have raised expectations and some eyebrows. PD is a neurodegenerative condition, sometimes diagnosed or followed by PET scans such as the one at left, characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons leading to severe and sometimes life-threatening symptoms. Pluripotent stem …
How risky are stem cell trials for Parkinson’s beginning in China? Read More »
The FDA recently issued a lengthy warning letter to Northwestern University over the clinical trial practices of its Dr. Richard Burt and this letter just popped up on the FDA website. To my knowledge this is an unprecedented event as I’m not aware of another warning letter to a major university for a stem cell trial. Burt received the FDA …
As some of you readers know, in addition to being a scientist, I’m also an avid gardener and photographer. Every now and then I do posts on gardening or photography. I feel like I bring a scientist’s eye to the garden and that was true a few days ago when I captured the above picture of …
Fractals, fibonacci, & food: romanesco wows in garden Read More »
In the whirlwind that is the stem cell and regenerative medicine world, there are many concerning things that need attention, but also good stuff happens too and this post focuses on the positive. The Asterias spinal cord injury clinical trial, a phase 1/2a trial called SCiStar, continues to make encouraging news with a clean safety profile …
Good stem cell news on trials, FDA, cool new papers & more Read More »
What are the hottest stem cell trends in the field today? Depends who you ask, right? One impartial way to look at stem cell trends is through the lens of publication citations and the focuses of top stem cell papers. In that perhaps somewhat skewed, but interesting approach, the words used in the titles of the …
Text mining hottest 50 papers reveals hottest 2016 stem cell trends Read More »
Recently I had the opportunity to talk with the leadership of Asterias, a California biotech doing exciting clinical research using stem cells as the basis for treatment of spinal cord injury. The interview covers the past (Geron patients), present, and future. I spoke with Asterias President and CEO Stephen Cartt and CMO Edward Wirth. How …
Asterias interview: stem cell spinal cord injury trials advance Read More »
It takes a great deal of courage to participate in a clinical trial, patients who make that choice are heroes in my book and one such hero with stem cells was Ted Harada who had ALS. Sadly, Ted passed away from a brain tumor called glioblastoma last month. When enrolling in a trial, you just never …
Tribute to Ted Harada, pioneering stem cell trial participant and ALS advocate Read More »
So you’ve got a great draft paper on stem cells or regenerative medicine, but you’re wondering, “Which of the stem cell journals do I submit it too?” I get asked this question fairly often so I decided to do a post on it. Sometimes I ask myself this question about a paper we have nearly …
Where to submit my paper? A guide to stem cell journals Read More »