This week marked the release of new draft FDA guidance on cell and gene therapies. Is the FDA kind of like the guidance counselor at school or more like the principal? It probably depends on many factors. I also find it funny how pretty much everyone in academia and biotech industry works to be compliant …
Weekly reads: New FDA guidance, brains, MSCs, senescence Read More »
Those who follow the stem cell field might be familiar with stem cell clinic operator Neil Riordan. According to a recent press release and some news reports, Riordan just had some bad news in court related to a stem cell clinic in the U.S. Stem cell clinic lawsuit As background, why do those running stem …
$7.8 million verdict in stem cell clinics case against Neil Riordan Read More »
I recently found concerning SEC filings from the biotech Cryo-Cell about a deal it has with a Duke team for infusions of children with unproven umbilical cord cells. This turns out to be a $58 million deal. It relates in a major way to a Duke compassionate use or expanded access program (EAP) that already had raised …
FDA should freeze Duke EAP & probe $58 million Cryo-Cell deal linked to it Read More »
How can you tell who to trust in the world of stem cell therapy? What information can a patient trust? Once upon a time about a dozen years ago it seemed a much simpler question. There were universities and biotech companies doing legit research as well as clinical trials, and there were physicians doing bone …
Stem cell therapy: the good, the bad, & the muddy waters Read More »
Professor Joanne Kurtzberg’s clinical work at the Duke Autism Center on umbilical cord blood for autism and cerebral palsy (CP) involves a partnership with a publicly-traded cord blood banking firm called Cryo-Cell. Kurtzberg is also the Medical Director at the firm. In addition they have intellectual property in this area. The Duke team’s efforts, including …
Duke & Cryo-Cell plan big clinic for unproven infusions of kids Read More »
Cancer stem cells are one of the most interesting areas of research, intersecting the stem cell and cancer fields. Today’s weekly reads post highlights some new cancer stem cell articles along with some other interesting papers. I also note a recent weak stem cell clinical trial paper that is not a recommended read but is …
Weekly reads: cancer stem cells & other pubs plus a puzzler Read More »
The journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine has a long track record of publishing great work. I also have a lot of respect for the editors there and I’ve published there myself. But a few recent events have sparked concerns including over possible undisclosed conflicts of interest in some papers there about cord blood for autism. …
Cord conflicts at the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine Read More »
One of the most common questions I’ve gotten over the last decade is, “how much does stem cell therapy cost?” They actually seem most often to want to know more specifically how much it should cost. To try to authoritatively answer this now in 2023 we need data from the present and past along with expert …
What’s the difference between multipotent stem cells, totipotent stem cells, and pluripotent stem cells? The goal of today’s post is to help you learn and be clear on the differences. What’s in this article Definition of stem cells |Totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells | Pluripotent stem cells | Multipotent stem cells | The best kind of stem …
Multipotent & totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells Read More »
Somehow time has flown by so that I’ve been around for ages in the stem cell universe and some unproven stem cell clinic type firms, like the well-known Panama stem cell clinic that sells autism “treatments”, are also long-timers. It’s been an odd parallel existence for more than a decade. Today’s post is focused on …
Fact-Checking Panama stem cell institute: cost, safety, efficacy, docs Read More »