Search Results for: bioethics

Response from Drs. Braude & Lovell-Badge to My Letter on Mitochondrial Transfer, 3-Parent Technology

3-parent-baby

The following is a response to my Open Letter to the UK Parliament on mitochondrial transfer/3-parent technology from Drs. Peter Braude and Robin Lovell-Badge. Dear Professor Knoepfler, We read your open letter to the UK Parliament and the Science and Technology Committee with interest and concern. We are two scientists, like you, with particular interests […]

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Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014 Award: Vote To Choose 12 Finalists

Stem-Cell-Symbol

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

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Stem Cell Tourism and Patient Education

Stem-Cell-Symbol

What is the role of public education and stem cell tourism? What type of education is available to patients, caregivers and the public? Can public education actually change people’s minds such that they won’t undergo an unproven stem cell-based intervention (SCBI)? These are the questions I will discuss here. But first, let’s just give a

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Holding Institutions Responsible for Research Misconduct: the recent case of a death of stem cell scientist

Guest post on Research Misconduct. By Zubin Master Scientist Yoshiki Sasai, age 52, committed suicide and was found dead on August 5, 2014. Sasai was deputy director of the Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) at RIKEN in Kobe, Japan, and coauthor on two recently retracted Nature papers about a reportedly easier way to make induced

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Woman grows nose tumor in spine after stem cell injection

New-Nose

Clare Wilson over at the NewScientist has reported the case of a woman given an experimental stem cell treatment in Portugal for a spinal cord injury who later developed a strange tumor consisting of nose tissue. I highly recommend going over to that site and reading her excellent article. What’s the deal with this case? The woman was

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Interview with Nature on their editorial process in wake of STAP

Nature

I asked Nature a half dozen questions about their editorial process. While they declined to answer any direct questions about the STAP cell paper situation, I thank them for answering these questions via a Nature spokesperson. The end result is an intriguing glimpse inside the editorial/review process at Nature. 1. Does Nature have any kind

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Will Speedy A4M Stem Cell Course for Docs Put Patients at Risk?

A4M-logo

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and more specifically I say that a little stem cell training for MDs, such as from A4M, can potentially be a dangerous problem too. I’ve been very concerned about self-proclaimed “stem cell training courses” for MDs. These kinds of courses have claimed that over as short as a

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Emergency Suspension of Stem Cell Clinic Doc Kenneth Welker

Oregon-Optimal-Health

The Oregon State Medical Board took emergency action to suspend the medical license of Dr. Kenneth Welker of Eugene, Oregon on Thursday. Update: Unfortunately, the Associate Press (AP) story on this topic (discussed more below) contains numerous important mistakes including thoroughly mixing up embryonic, adult, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Keep that in mind. Also, sadly

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