At last year’s ISSCR 2010 Meeting in San Francisco, President Irv Weissman talked about the dangers of unvalidated stem cell treatments. He talked about the responsibility of stem cell scientists to stand against these and the importance for scientists not to endorse or serve on advisory committees of companies peddling such products and “therapies”. As …
Stem cell tourism: from bad to worse from 2010-2011 Read More »
I believe that stem cells may at some point allow people to live slightly longer, maybe a couple years on average. However, I think they have the potential to dramatically increase the quality of life during the time we are alive. My colleague Amy Adams over at the CIRM research blog had a great post …
Portraying sci-fi about stem cells and aging as reality: unhelpful hype Read More »
You know how when people give you bad news they ask “Are you sitting down?” Since I’m going to give you some good news in this post, I ask you now as you are reading this, are you standing up? We are constantly bombarded with news stories about what is bad for us. Some of …
During the Crusades almost a thousand years ago, millions of people were slaughtered predominantly in the name of spreading one religious belief. One could call it an extreme, lethal form of exerting the power of one belief, a sort of power-grabbing proselytizing using weapons such as swords. Those barbaric Crusades seem like a long time …
The anti-stem cell Crusade: how many lives will it cost? Read More »
As I am writing this, a revolution in medicine and science is building up steam around the world called Genomics. Let me clue you in so you do not miss the boat on this dramatic change coming in our lives. Genomics means the study of genomes. A genome is the complete sequence of an organism’s DNA, …
The Genomics Revolution: move over blood type, here comes your genotype Read More »
What will we define as a success for any given stem cell biotech? In academia, even if we do pre-clinical, translational kind of biomedical sciences, we still do not often think about what it takes to succeed in industry. Even if we very much want our research to make a difference for patients, do we …
What really happens to cells after they a stem cell transplant into a patient? Once these cells, which have spent weeks in a lab environment, are injected into a person, what happens next? This is arguably the most important question in the regenerative medicine field, but there are few answers. We are literally mostly in …
Stem cells gone wild? What really happens after a transplant Read More »
I’ve been lecturing on stem cells as a professor here at UC Davis School of Medicine for many years so I can answer common questions such as “What are stem cells?”. The medical students ask many great questions. They are always interested in clinical applications. The goal of today’s article is to help you have …
What are stem cells? Definition & what they are used for Read More »
Last week I posted a stem cell treatment poll. I was curious about people’s experiences and attitudes toward non-FDA approved stem cell treatments. During my time as a stem cell scientist and educator, I have met many people, some of whom have told me about their experiences with stem cell treatments. The results of the …
For those of us conducting stem cell research, especially human stem cell research, I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is. Even just doing pre-clinical or basic science research costs a fortune. When you start talking about the kind of pre-clinical research specifically designed to get in the near future to a Phase …
The valley of death: stem cells, biotechs, and money Read More »