What’s the deal with Michael Schumacher and his Hail Mary stem cell procedure. Usually when we hear about celebrities getting unproven stem cells, it’s the celebrity themselves or their PR machine hyping it in exchange for something like free treatments or even money from those offering the stem cells for sale, but in the past […]
Probing F1 legend Michael Schumacher stem cell juice story Read More »
When people discuss “fat stem cells” they usually mean “stromal vascular fraction” or SVF. While references to fat or adipose stem cells can sometimes mean non-SVF materials, these days adipose SVF gets the most attention. But, does anyone have a clear picture of this biologic? Fortunately, it’s starting to come more into focus in recent years
What is stromal vascular fraction or SVF? Read More »
Japan is a leader in stem cell and regenerative medicine research, and in particular in clinical translation toward the bedside. Induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC)-based investigational therapies are rightly an area of focus in Japan given their invention by Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka. Small clinical studies based on IPSC have been initiated there for several
Japan stem cell clinical studies rapidly piling up Read More »
There is real hope for treating spinal cord injury with stem cell-based therapies in the future. However, unfortunately regulators in Japan have taken a major misstep in approving a not-ready-for-primetime mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based approach to spinal cord injury. Their decision is dangerous and unwise. In a Nature piece (linked to above) by David Cyranoski
Japan’s dangerous gamble approving unproven stem cells for spinal cord injury Read More »
If you are sick of the general news lately, I recommend turning to the wonder of cool science like the thought-provoking data in the duo of new stem cell pubs discussed below including on artificial embryos. Synthetic embryos A team led by Alfonso Martinez-Arias reports new findings in their Nature letter in the growing area
Papers on artificial embryos and muscle stem cells Read More »
Ain’t nothing like the real thing…right? No, by the ‘real thing’ I’m not talking about Coke versus Pepsi or Coke versus Diet Coke, but rather stem cells. (On a side note there’s still some people who apparently believe the stem cell myth that there are stem cells in Pepsi). I get a regular stream of
Stem-ish cells: what’s the real thing? Read More »
What if it seemed based on the public statements of its leader that a business was using an unapproved and unproven, genetically-modified, stem cell-based ‘cancer vaccine’ on patients? Is that possible? Sometimes I think I’ve seen and heard it all when it comes to companies marketing non-FDA approved, scientifically unproven stem cell ‘therapies’ to patients
The recent news that Texas A&M University has inked a full-blown deal with the direct-to-consumer stem cell clinic firm Celltex struck me as an unusual development. Recently we’ve seen more universities exploring the use of stem cells outside of the traditional FDA clinical trial process that is fundamentally based on an investigational new drug application (IND). Some
Why did Texas A&M ink big deal with stem cell clinic firm Celltex on exosomes? Read More »
Stem cell clinics marketing non-FDA approved therapies directly to consumers have been in various tense situations at times with the FDA or academics over the years, but more recently these stem cell clinic-related firms also appear in conflict with each other sometimes. The most notable recent example of conflict involves Dr. Christopher Centeno of Regenexx
Internecine conflicts among direct-to-consumer stem cell firms Read More »
It’s a difficult, but very important road to conclusively prove that an investigational stem cell therapy is both safe and effective in order to get final approval FDA or equivalents in other countries. For this reason, it is beneficial to highlight even small, but positive steps forward including encouraging pre-clinical data. Today I’m doing a
Stem cell therapy review of good news: UC Davis, Asterias, Cynata, Mesoblast, ViaCyte Read More »