It was my pleasure recently to talk at length with Dr. Michael West, CEO of the Stem Cell Biotech, BioTime (BTX). West has been at the helm of BioTime since 2007 and is a true pioneer in the stem cell field. He founded Geron (GERN) and was a top leader at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT; stock […]
Interview with BioTime CEO Michael West Part 1: a little stem cell history Read More »
What really happened at XCell-Center in Germany, formerly the largest stem cell clinic in Europe? A baby died after receiving treatment there. Why? Was the death in any way connected to stem cells? (update: note that since post originally went up, quite a few more patient deaths both a clinics and in clinical trials have
Commenter Claims XCell-Center Stem Cell Clinic Got a Bad Rap, Provides New Details Read More »
The Philippines Medical Association (PMA) is reportedly (article from ABS-CBN News) investigating the recent deaths of 3 prominent politicians due to stem cell therapies via stem cell tourism in Germany at an as yet unidentified clinic. The names of the politicians are unknown, but strangely enough today there’s another separate article on stem cells from the Philippine
Philippines Investigating 3 Politician Deaths Allegedly From Stem Cells in Germany Read More »
Where do things stand today for using stem cells to treat COPD? Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a relatively common, often debilitating illness, which has a major impact on the people of the world. In the US alone, COPD costs the country almost $50 billion a year not to mention untold suffering. Most of
Can stem cells help COPD? Read More »
Is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on the road to cure Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using stem cells and specifically MSCs? Some folks seem to think it’s quite possible, but I remain skeptical. Still there have been some interesting developments. ACT has a relatively new patent filing for a mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) product that was just
ACT patent filing for MSCs: of Dancing Mice & Multiple Sclerosis Read More »
There are a few excellent stem cell blogs out there. I can see two main ways to evaluate blogs. The first and most important in my opinion is qualitative. Do you enjoy the blog? Does it have fresh, original, & interesting content? Is it influential? I also look for a sense of humor and a
Top Stem Cell Blogs List & Their Internet Metrics Read More »
Remember Hisashi Moriguchi? He’s the fellow who claimed to have transplanted cells made from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into human patients, to have worked at Harvard, and so forth. It all turned out not to be true. He even admitted it. Now Moriguchi is back in the news. He has several more papers published
Hisashi Moriguchi 2.0: more papers, more claims, and a new mysterious co-author Read More »
This is a guest post by Dr. Chris Centeno as I aim to bring in different viewpoints. By Christopher J. Centeno, M.D. We have noted an explosion in the number of stem cell clinics over the past several years. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see several new ones pop up on
Dr. Chris Centeno Guest Post on Risky Surge of Newbie Stem Cell Clinics Read More »
Guest post on talk by Jamie Thomson. By Jeanne Loring. On Wednesday afternoon at the ISSCR meeting in Boston, Jamie Thomson gave a talk about the history of human pluripotent stem cells. There were probably only a dozen people in the audience of around 3,000 who were working on human ES cells around the same
Jeanne Loring’s Thoughts on Jamie Thomson ISSCR Talk Read More »
Remember Stemage? They are the cosmetic company with Kathy Ireland as their spokesperson whose anti-aging cream includes extracts from human stem cells. In Part 1 of this blog series on Stemage I gave some key background and raised some important questions. I also sent some questions to the company and now more recently to the
Stemage Stem Cell Anti-Aging Cream 2.0: Interview with Dr. David Scharp Read More »