Every year I do a list of top predictions for the coming year for the stem cell and regenerative medicine field. For example, you can see past top 10 predictions lists for 2013 and 2014. What’s in store for 2015 from the stem cell crystal ball? There is so much going on that for this …
It’s been a seemingly rather quiet year on the regulatory front in the US when it comes to direct-to-consumer stem cell interventions even as the number of dubious stem cell clinics continues to skyrocket. I requested an interview with the FDA to cover the key pressing issues in this arena. I want to thank the …
New Interview with FDA on Key Stem Cell Regulatory Issues & Its Own Research Read More »
With one week left to vote to pick the top 12 finalists for the Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award, we have more than 2,800 votes in so far. From the top 12 vote-getters, I will choose the winner. This is the third year of this award. I self-fund this award out of …
Stem Cell Person of the Year Award 2014 Voting: Who Will Be Finalists? Read More »
Nominations have closed and we have more than two dozen nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014. It’s an exciting, diverse group including some news faces as well as nominees from years past as well. Happy Stem Cell Day! You can now vote for your choice for the top finalists in the poll …
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award: Vote To Choose 12 Finalists Read More »
I invited Neuralstem CEO, Richard Garr, to do a Q&A interview and he kindly accepted. The interview provides some novel insights into this major biotech in the stem cell sector. 1. How is Neuralstem doing today? What programs are underway that you find particularly exciting? Garr: Neuralstem is moving on all cylinders these days on …
What are the most interesting questions for the stem cell field in 2014 right now? What’s on your mind? I’m not going to give this deep thought, but rather just list those questions bouncing around at the moment in no particular order. You can see a lot of translational/clinical things are on my mind. I’ve …
Key questions for stem cell field bouncing around on a Friday morning Read More »
Ted Harada is a wonderful patient advocate for the stem cell field and for the development of safe and effective stem cell products to treat ALS. Ted has ALS and received stem cell-based treatments for it with surprising, very encouraging results. The Harada family is pictured at left with Ted, his wife Michelle as well as …
Ted Harada Interview Part 1: Stem Cells for ALS, More Read More »
My lab is focused in part on chromatin states in stem cells and cancer including heterochromatin. In fact, my lab’s website is chromatin.com. Heterochromatin is dense, often inactive chromatin. By H&E staining and electron microscopy, heterochromatin looks dark compared to the rest of the nucleus, largely composed of euchromatin. Toward the end of my postdoc …
Weekly reads: heterochromatin, H3.3, Mesoblast bump Read More »
A few dozen clinics in the US sell an unproven RNA therapy called supportive oligonucleotide therapy or SOT. The product comes from a Greek firm RGCC or Research Genetic Cancer Center, which also pre-tests patients’ gene expression to design the RNA product. Clinics marketing SOT in the US say it is intended to act by …
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a lot going for it right now on the cell therapy front. For instance, they have the strongest type 1 diabetes cell therapy pipeline after some recent acquisitions. Still it’s not a simple matter to succeed in the cell therapy space even with one therapy for one targeted disease. Trials are tough …
Weekly reads: Vertex, stem cells for MS, Athersys, 900-day paper review at Nature Read More »