In a shocker, Japan’s 2nd largest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, published an editorial yesterday saying that iPS cells are being pushed too fast to the clinic for economic reasons. The piece was bluntly entitled “Too much of a rush for clinical trials with iPS cells”. Asahi Shimbun, with a circulation of 10 million, is taking a bold […]
Asahi Shimbun Editorial: iPS Cells Rushed For Economic Reasons Read More »
What the heck is going on with stem cells in the Philippines lately? It seems like a wild, stormy mixture of supposed good and very bad news streaming out of that country all at once. Many questions remain both on the alleged upside and the down side. Do the reported deaths of 3 politicians really have
Stem Cell Storm Builds in the Philippines Read More »
IntelliCell (SVFC) is a stem cell company that does cosmetic stem cell procedures. They’ve had a number of challenges of late including an FDA warning letter about a year ago and apparent financial issues manifesting in lawsuits. Now the company itself, perhaps trying to get ahead of the news, issued a press release (PR) saying they
Intellicell Inspected By FDA: What Does It Mean? Read More »
I worry that NASA is suffering from apophenia and pareidolia. Both acute and chronic cases. What the heck? Let me explain. Do you ever look up at the clouds and see fluffy animals? Or maybe other things that clouds look like such as a train, plane, or a dragon? Pareidolia is the tendency of people
NASA suffering from pareidolia & apophenia? The watery science of Mars Read More »
Are MUSE cells for real? Stem cells come in different types that vary in a key property called “potency”, but very few are pluripotent. The more potency, the greater the flexibility of a stem cell to make other cell types. Flexibility in the cellular world is power. The most powerful stem cells generally used are
Jury is still out on purported adult pluripotent stem cells despite new MUSE paper Read More »
We had the big news last week that for the first time ever, human embryo cloning (aka “therapeutic cloning”) worked to produce apparently normal embryonic stem cells. I posted about it a few times here, here, and here. I have tried my best to be factual, open minded, and realistic about the issues. Frankly, the
Stem cell field stumbles on cloning dialogue Read More »
L’Oreal/Lancome has been in the business of making money off of stem cells for quite some time now via so-called stem cell facial creams that are expensive and based on dubious claims, and now they are in the stem cells for baldness biz too. Note I have a helpful 2nd post on how stem cells
L’Oreal now claims baldness cure with stem cells Read More »
One of the more exciting stem cell biotechs out there today is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). At this time ACT has the only two ES cell-based FDA-approved clinical trials ongoing and so far they have looked quite promising in terms of preliminary safety data. However, ACT has much more in the pipeline including potentially iPS
Interview with Gary Rabin of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Read More »
To blog or not to blog? Sometimes that is the question and a tough one. Keep going or shut it down? Let’s say that you are a blogger and scientist. I am one of those people wearing both of those hats. A sexy paper comes out in your field. It’s all over the Internet and
To blog or not to blog about sexy, but crappy paper from Dr. Famous? Read More »
Dr. Steven Victor, CEO of Intellicell, seems to have made two comments on a recent blog post I did on stem cell sports medicine (see below). Victor and Intellicell received a warning letter from the FDA in March 2012 with the FDA. I’m not aware of Intellicell publicly addressing the FDA issues. If you have, Intellicell, please
Dr. Steven Victor of Intellicell Comments on its Stem Cell Treatments Read More »