Search Results for: mscs

Mike West Interview Part 3: key flaw in stem cell field

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I’m doing a series of posts on my recent conversation with BioTime CEO and pioneer of the stem cell field, Dr. Mike West. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 on Geron, ACT, and the history of the pluripotent stem cell field, particularly embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Today in Part 3, I am focusing on …

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Celltex advocate Rick Perry will not run again for Texas governor: stem cell impact

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Texas Governor Rick Perry just announced that he will not run again for governor. This political development has important impact in the stem cell field, particularly in the state of Texas. Perry is one of the biggest advocates of certain types of adult stem cell commercialization. When he is no longer governor there will be impact …

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Commenter Claims XCell-Center Stem Cell Clinic Got a Bad Rap, Provides New Details

XCell

What really happened at XCell-Center in Germany, formerly the largest stem cell clinic in Europe? A baby died after receiving treatment there. Why? Was the death in any way connected to stem cells? (update: note that since post originally went up, quite a few more patient deaths both a clinics and in clinical trials have …

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Jury is still out on purported adult pluripotent stem cells despite new MUSE paper

MUSE-cells

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 …

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Kathy Ireland Stemáge Stem Cell Product: Part 1, is it a drug?

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I was alerted by a friend to the fact that there are now YouTube ads for stem cell products popping up, and one such ad features supermodel Kathy Ireland pitching for something called Stemáge Skin Care. Updated (May 23): note that preliminary word from Sanford-Burnham is that they are not collaborating on Stemáge. Today’s post is …

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Interview with Gary Rabin of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT)

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One of the more exciting stem cell biotechs out there today is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). At this time ACT has the only two ES cell-based FDA-approved clinical trials ongoing and so far they have looked quite promising in terms of preliminary safety data. However, ACT has much more in the pipeline including potentially iPS …

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Interviews

I’ve been fortunate to interview some of the greats in the stem cell field for this blog and host debates between key players. Please note that just because I have interviewed folks does not mean I agree with them or that they agree with me. The point is to establish dialogue on key issues. As …

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Interview with Arnold Caplan, Part 4: the FDA and the Future

Today is part of 4 (the last) of my interview with Dr. Arnold Caplan, MSC godfather and guru. You can read parts 1-3 of the interview here, here, and here. In this post I focus on my discussion with Caplan on translation of stem cells to patients and the FDA. During our conversation we talked about some …

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SVF & CAL are two fat stem cell acronyms generating a lot of buzz

Two emerging acronyms in the for-profit stem cell world that remain unknown to most academic stem cell scientists, but that are generating the most buzz are: SVF and CAL. These are two fat acronyms. What? These acronyms relate to adipose (fat) stem cell-based procedures. SVF stands for “stromal vascular fraction”. SVF is, for lack of …

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