What does the future hold for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), also known as the California Stem Cell Agency? While new CIRM grants should be awarded up until 2017, CIRM is rightly thinking about its future. Californians should be paying attention and thinking ahead too. You might say that since I’m a CIRM […]
The Case for CIRM 2.0: Continuing California’s Stem Cell Leadership Read More »
The Australian stem cell biotech Mesoblast (MSB) has reportedly reached a deal with the American stem cell biotech Osiris (OSIR) to buy Osiris’ mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) unit. This is a big development in the MSC field. Osiris and Mesoblast are two major players in this particular subfield of the stem cell world so this deal,
Mesoblast (MSB) buys Osiris (OSIR) stem cell unit Read More »
Fox News reports (and the Las Vegas Review-Journal too) that convicted stem cell fraud Alfred Sapse (see more on him & this case here and here) has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution. Sapse along with pediatrician Ralph Conti (see image above from the
Long prison sentence for another stem cell fraud Read More »
In a shocker, Japan’s 2nd largest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, published an editorial yesterday saying that iPS cells are being pushed too fast to the clinic for economic reasons. The piece was bluntly entitled “Too much of a rush for clinical trials with iPS cells”. Asahi Shimbun, with a circulation of 10 million, is taking a bold
Asahi Shimbun Editorial: iPS Cells Rushed For Economic Reasons Read More »
What the heck is going on with stem cells in the Philippines lately? It seems like a wild, stormy mixture of supposed good and very bad news streaming out of that country all at once. Many questions remain both on the alleged upside and the down side. Do the reported deaths of 3 politicians really have
What is going on with stem cell in the Philippines Read More »
IntelliCell (SVFC) is a stem cell company that does cosmetic stem cell procedures. They’ve had a number of challenges of late including an FDA warning letter about a year ago and apparent financial issues manifesting in lawsuits. Now the company itself, perhaps trying to get ahead of the news, issued a press release (PR) saying they
Intellicell Inspected By FDA: What Does It Mean? Read More »
I worry that NASA is suffering from apophenia and pareidolia. Both acute and chronic cases. What the heck? Let me explain. Do you ever look up at the clouds and see fluffy animals? Or maybe other things that clouds look like such as a train, plane, or a dragon? Pareidolia is the tendency of people
NASA suffering from pareidolia & apophenia? The watery science of Mars Read More »
Are MUSE cells for real? Stem cells come in different types that vary in a key property called “potency”, but very few are pluripotent. The more potency, the greater the flexibility of a stem cell to make other cell types. Flexibility in the cellular world is power. The most powerful stem cells generally used are
Jury is still out on purported adult pluripotent stem cells despite new MUSE paper Read More »
We had the big news last week that for the first time ever, human embryo cloning (aka “therapeutic cloning”) worked to produce apparently normal embryonic stem cells. I posted about it a few times here, here, and here. I have tried my best to be factual, open minded, and realistic about the issues. Frankly, the
Stem cell field stumbles on cloning dialogue Read More »
L’Oreal/Lancome has been in the business of making money off of stem cells for quite some time now via so-called stem cell facial creams that are expensive and based on dubious claims, and now they are in the stem cells for baldness biz too. Note I have a helpful 2nd post on how stem cells
L’Oreal now claims baldness cure with stem cells Read More »