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 »
Would Scientific American run an ad for a stem cell clinic? 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
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 »
Both before and particularly now after the big human gene editing summit in Washington, D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences, I’ve talked with patients about their views on this new technology including at last week’s World Stem Cell Summit. One of the most striking moments of the DC summit was when the mother of
Just freakin do it: patients voice impatience on CRISPR for genetic diseases Read More »
By Heather Main I was a little ashamed of myself that I didn’t know who half of the finalists were in Paul Knoepfler’s Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. I decided to look into it and find out what (or who) I have missed…..Interestingly, 3 of the 7 listed here are not scientists but
Mini-bios on finalists for Stem Cell Person of the Year Read More »