Tonight, President Obama will give his “State of the Union” annual address on how our country is doing. I’m guessing he will say the state of the union is positive, but with challenges. What is the state of the union for stem cells in America today? Overall I think it’s extremely encouraging and the field […]
Stem Cell State of the Union Read More »
The below is an excerpt from my book, Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide. I hope you enjoy this excerpt and the book, which I think is a really good deal at under $27 paperback or under $17 for E-book version. Having our innovation and ethics too In the stem cell field you can have it
Book Excerpt: Stem Cell For-Profit Good Citizen Biotechs Read More »
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
Emergency Suspension of Stem Cell Clinic Doc Kenneth Welker Read More »
One of the big stem cell-related stories of 2013 was the controversy over the Stamina Foundation in Italy and its potential use of largely untested stem cell products on patients, including mostly children. The winner of my 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award was Dr. Elena Cattaneo and one reason she won was the courage
Nature Slams Controversial Stamina Foundation: A Dangerous Situation Continues Read More »
One of the most concerning new trends in the stem cell arena is the explosive growth of chains of for-profit stem cell clinics in the US including Stem MD. This kind of franchising of stem cell for-profit operations deeply concerns me in terms of its potential risks to increasing numbers of patients and to the
Claims of Stem Cell Cures by Clinic Chain, Stem MD Read More »
Who reads this stem cell blog? I recently did a poll that allows readers of this blog to self-identify themselves in terms of who they are. I included 20 categories and someone picked all of them at least once. I was happy to get more than 220 responses and the results were quite surprising to
Surprising Poll Results on Stem Cell Blog Readership Read More »
Each year I make predictions for the stem cell field for the coming year. In today’s post I write about my top 10 stem cell predictions for 2014. You can see my predictions for 2013 here (see predictions for 2011 and 2012 predictions, which are kind of fun to read to see what was on the “mind” of the field
Stem Cell Predictions for 2014 Read More »
Stem Cells for Alzheimer’s Disease? Below is an excerpt focused on Alzheimer’s Disease from my new book on stem cells. Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide, which is targeted to a broad audience of people interested in stem cells. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is one of the most devastating illnesses. It destroys the brain, which shrinks over
Book Excerpt: Stem Cells for Alzheimer’s Disease–Are We There yet? Read More »
Every year I do predictions for the stem cell field for the coming year. You can see my full post on my predictions for this year here. Stay tuned soon for my predictions for 2014. How’d I do for 2013 with my predications? Each prediction for this year that I made last year is bolded
How’d stem cell predictions for 2013 fare? Read More »
There have been many interesting developments in stem cells in 2013, but to me the biggest event by far was the first ever successful somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)-based human therapeutic cloning. This approach generated apparently genetically normal human embryonic stem cells (hESC), an astonishing accomplishment. There are two kinds of human cloning: therapeutic and reproductive.
Stem cell story of the year: human therapeutic cloning Read More »