What do you get when celebrity podcaster Joe Rogan talks about stem cells? There can be big impact one way or another. I don’t believe his shows on stem cells have helped provide solid info. What do I mean? Patients can be strongly influenced by what they see on social media and YouTube videos pack […]
Deconstructing Joe Rogan promotional stem cell video with Mel Gibson Read More »
Some notable newly published Phase II data from the Duke cord blood for cerebral palsy trial unfortunately doesn’t give much reason for optimism that this approach is going to have a substantial positive effect for these kids. The double-blinded, placebo-controlled study did not find a meaningful benefit overall from infusions of autologous cord blood (ACB) for
Cord blood for cerebral palsy: mostly discouraging new trial data Read More »
I appreciate fun linguistic approaches to explaining science such as a good science metaphor and I use them myself at times, but sometimes these end up risking doing much more harm than good. The best or should I say worst example I’ve heard recently is referring to a growth factor called BDNF as “Miracle-Gro for the brain”.
Risky science metaphor: BDNF as ‘Miracle-Gro for the brain’ Read More »
Need a fix of some stem cell good news? I do. It has been a bumpy 2016 so far for the stem cell field and many challenges have popped up. So today at lunch and needing at least a short break from grant writing, I went looking for stem cell good news including interesting studies, promising
List of 11 stem cell good news or interesting stories Read More »
What a strange Internet world we live in these days, huh? Leigh Turner and I just published a piece in Cell Stem Cell on the state of the US stem cell clinic market finding 570 clinics and this paper has drawn a lot of media attention including a piece in Scientific American (Sciam). I’m glancing
Dang: ad for stem cell clinic @Sciam article on our paper on stem cell clinics Read More »
How would Donald Trump, if elected president, impact American science? Would Trump on Science be a good thing, bad thing or somewhere in between? Would he “reject” the NIH budget? Might he even personally reject some grants, “Your R01 is fired” just for fun? And, yes, I know I’m biased. Take our poll. Can we
Trump on Science: Poll & His Words Read More »
A team at the University of Miami has launched a claimed first of its kind stem cell clinic trial for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). The trial seems somewhat unique in using mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) for AD and is being run with biotech Longeveron. You can read more on the actual clinic trial including all the
New Stem Cell Clinic Trial for Alzheimer’s: Perspectives & Questions Read More »
Medical News Today (MNT) published an article yesterday on a stem cell clinic in Mexico that caused a lot of concern because to many of us it came off as unbalanced and even promotional of the clinic. You can read my post from yesterday on this situation. In response, MNT has now revised their piece and included this
Revised Medical News Today Stem Cell Article Improved But Still Unbalanced Read More »
A new article by Honor Whiteman in Medical News Today (MNT) on a Mexico stem cell clinic really takes the prize so far in 2016 amongst media pieces that engage in stem cell hype. Update; Many on Twitter are calling for retraction of this MNT article. The MNT article entitled “Stem cell therapy: is the US
Medical News Today article reads like an ad for Mexico stem cell clinic Read More »
The FDA has sent a Warning Letter to the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center. The leader of Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center is Dr. Thomas Gionis and the letter was addressed to him. Interestingly, this letter, dated December 30, 2015, contains redactions. At one time this clinic was part of the larger Cell Surgical Network (CSN)
FDA Warning Letter to Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center Clinics Across US Read More »