I remember seeing a cowboy-type TV show when I was a little kid where a guy pulled into town not slinging guns but selling snake oil. He stood right up on his wagon and started pitching the wonders of what he was selling. He had some buyers pretty quick. Eventually, someone like a sheriff or […]
Snake oil history from century old elixirs to fake stem cells Read More »
Those of you following the arena of unproven stem cells might recognize the name Dr. Joseph Mercola. He’s a promoter of alternative medicine. Over the years his name has also popped related to the marketing of unproven stem cell offerings in various ways. Now the FDA has warned Joseph Mercola on what it says are unapproved
FDA warns Joseph Mercola on COVID-19 claims Read More »
What should we make of clinics like the Lung Health Institute? These clinics sell unproven stem cell or regenerative therapies for lung disease. Overall, I’m extremely skeptical. I don’t believe it’s worth the cost. There are also going to be potentially serious health risks. Lung disease is a broad category including COPD, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis,
Fact check: Lung Health Institute & cell therapies for lung disease Read More »
Recently I was going through a list I’m updating of regenerative medicine biotech companies including Bluebird bio. Now just a few days later the world seems turned upside down for the firm and maybe to some degree for other companies doing related work. Bluebird bio blues: 2 trial participants get cancer News broke today that
Bluebird bio sickle cell gene therapy trial halted on cancer worry Read More »
This week we have some interesting new reading including both on the stem cell basic and translational fronts as well as on COVID-19 vaccines. COVID-19 vaccine considerations From Derek Lowe at In The Pipeline on COVID-19 vaccine expectations at Science Translational Medicine, Get Ready for False Side Effects. You can read my views on possible
Recommended stem cell reads: retractions, aging, COVID, CRISPR soldiers Read More »
As a pivotal advance in the gene-editing field and timeline, CRISPR continues to be utilized for research on stem cells and human diseases. Today, I will explain some of the most notable recent findings in the stem cell-CRISPR field. To start things off, I have also created an infographic that briefly explains what CRISPR-Cas9 is,
New research on CRISPR gene-editing in stem cells, infographic Read More »
Introduction to CAR-T cells CAR-T cells are an exciting cutting-edge technology that has been garnering great interest including in the stem cell field. Potential therapeutic uses of CAR-T, which stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cells (CAR-T), are being studied in clinical trials as immunotherapies to potentially fight cancer as well as many other diseases by
CAR-T cells review: cancer & a critical look at possible uses in aging & COVID-19 Read More »
Stem cell clinics and suppliers have been getting into the business of making promotional films to generate more revenue, but now there’s something very different in the cinematic stem cell arena called From Jail Cell to Stem Cell by filmmaker Doug Orchard. It is at its heart an exposé film about some in my view particularly concerning stem
Review of clinic exposé film From Jail Cell to Stem Cell Read More »
Here are our weekly recommended regenerative medicine and other notable science reads including a few things on COVID. It’s been quite an interesting week. “Junk DNA” is not so junky, role in differentiation NIH scientists showed how ancient retroviral genes, or “junk DNA”, may play a role in helping stem cells decide to become neurons. This
Weekly reads: ‘junk DNA’, COVID chaos, CRISPR CasΦ, & postdoc opps, more Read More »
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
Recommended regenerative medicine reads plus COVID-19 stem cell hype Read More »