I recently met the CEO of NeoStem, Dr. Robin Smith, at the 2012 World Stem Cell Summit in Florida. We had a great talk and I invited Dr. Smith to do an interview for my blog. She agreed and has provided very frank answers to my questions, some of which I think were very difficult […]
Interview with NeoStem CEO Robin Smith Part 1 Read More »
Sergei Filin, the ballet master of the famed Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, was the victim of a nasty acid attack to the face and eyes. As the case remains under investigation, Filin was reportedly treated with a high-risk, unproven stem cell treatment to the eyes using umbilical cord stem cells. Allogeneic stem cell treatments are
Eyes of Bolshoi acid attack victim Sergei Filin treated with unproven stem cell therapy Read More »
The headline quoting George Church reads: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Supposedly Harvard Geneticist George Church, according to Der Spiegel magazine (and gazillions of other mainstream media outlets that translated the German piece including here), wants to clone a Neanderthal baby using an unholy combination of stem cell and genetics technologies. The only problem
George Church: ‘Adventurous’ woman sought to carry Neanderthal baby Read More »
Sometimes a stem cell cartoon has more impact than words. With growing pressure, including political pressure on the FDA, to deregulate the point-of-care, for-profit stem cell clinic industry, one can only imagine a future in which deregulation has taken its natural course…..that’s what I’ve done in the political cartoon above. A “double shot” takes on
Cartoon on the future of stem cell deregulation Read More »
I’ve been running a poll on just how similar iPS cells are to ES cells. Most respondents do not think iPS cells are functionally identical to ES cells as only 18% said they were identical. Double that number say unequivocally that iPS cells are not functionally the same as ES cells. The greatest number of
Results of stem cell poll: only 18% say iPS cells are functionally identical to ES cells Read More »
How seriously do patients consider stem cell clinical trials? This is the first in a new series of posts I’m doing in lessons I’ve learned from the ever-increasing number of patients who contact me directly or are readers of this blog who make great comments. Today’s post is focused on the lack of availability of
Lessons from patients: stem cell clinical trials unlikely option for most patients Read More »
What is the Model stem cell patient advocate? I deal with many patient advocates and that is one of my favorite parts of my job. They are wonderful! However some go above and beyond the call of duty and are model advocates in my opinion. Others do some great things, but also some negative things
Model stem cell patient advocate: what are the key elements of success? Read More »
I’m doing this series called “The Elephant in the Lab” where I discuss controversial or taboo laboratory topics that people are usually too afraid to publicly discuss. I started with iPS cells (for a description and definition of iPS cells go here) and now have updated this post for 2013 because the field is changing rapidly. iPS
Taboo topics about iPS cells: updated for 2013 Read More »
The Knoepfler Lab 2012 Stem Cell Person of the Year is Roman Reed. Congratulations, Roman Reed! Roman made a tremendous difference in 2012 in many ways. One of the most notable was catalyzing the TJ Atchison Spinal Cord Injury Research Act in Alabama, which provides $400,000/year in funding for research. Of course, TJ and many
Stem Cell Person of the Year 2012: Roman Reed Read More »
I’ve already talked with science writer Ed Yong about the new Nature iPS cell paper Araki, et al. (you can read Ed’s well-written piece here and you can another one on it by another one of my favorite writers, Monya Baker here), which suggests that iPS cells don’t trigger much in the way of an immune
Some thoughts on the Araki Nature iPS cell paper: an advance, but a few key caveats Read More »