Many patients ask me what questions they should be asking doctors and stem cell clinics about possible stem cell therapies. Here is my top 10 list of key items (in both graphic summarized form and detailed text form) that you need to know about and questions about a potential stem cell therapy. Some of these […]
Questions List to Bring With You to the Stem Cell Clinic Read More »
On May 13, 2011 I published a post entitled “Friday the 13th for iPS cells”. That day was indeed Friday the 13th and there were some reports in Nature of concerns about iPS cells in terms of immunogenicity and this had followed on the heels of reports on significant genomic and epigenomic warts in iPS
Stem Cell TGIF on Friday the 13th: My Reactions to the Big Recent Stories Read More »
What if you could reprogram cells inside of an organism to a different fate and, for instance, make IPS cells? We can, right? But when most of us think about making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, we imagine it all happening in a little plastic dish in our labs or in our colleague’s labs, not
Stem cell journal club: dishing on Nature paper on making iPS cells inside mice Read More »
Stem cell technology is poised to wow the world with biomedical advances in the coming decades and Japan wants to lead the way. They want to forge ahead particularly with applications that focus on a relatively new kind of stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells. Japanese researcher, Shinya Yamanaka, first reported production
Japan Aiming For a Commanding Position on New Stem Cells Read More »
What are Stem Cell Deep Throats or news sources? I get contacted by a growing number of people on a weekly basis wanting to communicate about stem cells. I think it is largely because of this blog and my educational outreach efforts. Mostly these folks have questions for me. Other times they cold contact me
Stem Cell Deep Throats: Anonymous Sources for this Blog Read More »
In a first for the field, scientists have used human pluripotent stem cells to grow miniature brain-like structures (brain organoids) in a dish in a lab (see beautiful image of one of these “mini-brains” at left from the paper). This exciting, pioneering feat, accomplished by a team from the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna
If I only had a brain: brain organoids from pluripotent stem cells Read More »
Some stem cell clinics are pressuring their own patients into potentially breaking federal law through something like smuggling. A big problem for certain clinics is how to bring the paying American customer (i.e. the patient) and the biological product that they are selling derived from the patient’s stem cells together outside the reach of the
Patient Advisory: Sneaking Stem Cells Out of USA May Be Illegal Smuggling Read More »
I recently did a poll on stem cell homing. As you can see from the poll results above, most respondents believe that stem cells can home depending on circumstances. Almost 2/3 of respondents believe that stem cells sometimes or always home in to areas of disease. However, most respondents did not believe in this being
Most people believe in limited stem cell homing Read More »
I met with Texas Governor Rick Perry, himself a recipient of stem cell transplants, last year to talk stem cells. He was enthusiastic about stem cells to put it mildly and it was great to talk with him. My impression from meeting with him in person is that he is clearly a very intelligent, energetic,
Rick Perry Sticky Stem Cell Problem for 2016 Read More »
What would your predictions be for 7 years down the road and by the way please read the eye chart below out loud. How’s your vision? Today’s post is a chance to let one’s optimism and excitement about stem cells run a bit wild looking ahead not to next year, but 7 years ahead to
20/20 Stem Cell Predictions for the Year 2020 Read More »