On November 18 in Washington, D.C. the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences will hold a workshop on stem cell therapies. The meeting (agenda here) is also co-sponsored by ISSCR. I have some major concerns about this meeting. In principle and in a general sense, I believe this is the kind of meeting and …
Puzzling Institute of Medicine stem cell workshop Read More »
There is a critical need for treatments for children with autism. 2020 update: see this more recent post on my thinking on stem cells for autism. About a year ago I wrote about a clinical trial at Sutter Health in Sacramento that was approved by the FDA for stem cells for autism. At that time …
Why I do not believe in stem cells for autism today Read More »
What can clouds tell us about a stem cell legal court case strategy such as USA v. Regenerative Sciences? It turns out, quite a lot. In about a week a Federal Appeals Court Case will begin to review the ruling in the USA v Regenerative Sciences that favored the FDA. This is arguably one of …
USA v Regenerative Sciences Word Clouds are Illuminating Read More »
The voting is over and we have our top 12 finalists for the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. You can see the final votes results below. It’s definitely an intriguing list that reflects the range of important areas in the field today. I can say without any hesitation that all 12 of …
Dozen Finalists for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 Read More »
The Australian stem cell biotech Mesoblast (MSB) has reportedly reached a deal with the American stem cell biotech Osiris (OSIR) to buy Osiris’ mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) unit. This is a big development in the MSC field. Osiris and Mesoblast are two major players in this particular subfield of the stem cell world so this deal, …
Mesoblast (MSB) buys Osiris (OSIR) stem cell unit Read More »
The shutdown of the US Federal Government has a wide scope of consequences, all negative. However, some repercussions are more serious than others. One very serious side effect of the shutdown is that upwards of 200 patients per week are being turned away from clinical trials administered and overseen by various federal agencies including the …
Nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year 2013 closed last night and I ended up with a remarkable list of 30 nominees. I have included a few sentences about each one below, often taking verbiage directly from the nominator. The online voting on these nominees will start soon. The top vote getters will move …
BioTime (BTX), via its subsidiary Asterias, has formally purchased the Geron (GERN) embryonic stem cell (ESC) research program and assets. Incidentally, Asterias in nature refers to a genus of sea stars including starfish and you can see it in their logo. Perhaps this was chosen given the amazing regenerative capacity of starfish? You may recall …
Great news: BioTime Subsidiary Asterias Acquires Geron Embryonic Stem Cell Program Read More »
Lately on average patients or patient relatives contact me about stem cells more than once a week. That’s about 50 times a year. The patients or their parents have questions about stem cells most often. Sometimes they have comments about this blog. Other times they ask for medical advice from me. Because I am a …
Contemplating patients contacting me about stem cells Read More »
Somewhere out in the ocean there is a container ship steaming from Singapore here to the US and getting close to our shores and on that ship are the first printing copies of my new book, Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide. At the same time, preparations for the e-book version are just about done. I …
Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide Book Signing & Talk on October 10th Read More »