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Should a company be able to have a gene patent and more generally and practically speaking can genes be patented? Patent and IP issues always raise a myriad of questions so what about a patent case on a company called Myriad? Complicated, right? If genes in their natural form cannot be patented, does that mean
Myriad SCOTUS Decision: Can you have a gene patent? Read More »
One of the great areas of confusion over the human cloning development this week is whether human cloning is legal or illegal. With few exceptions, human cloning in general is legal in the US. Update: in 2020 it still appears that reproductive human cloning is legal in the US. It just hasn’t gotten that much
Deja you: human cloning generally legal in the US Read More »
More and more evidence is accumulating that the alleged iPS cell transplantation in human patients by Dr. Hisashi Moriguchi was bunk. Nature today has a piece out today on the story providing more quotes about the case that suggest the whole thing was made up. Rather than re-hash all the details, in this post I’m going
The Moriguchi iPS transplant fable: key lessons & where do we go from here Read More »
What are Conflict of Interests (COI)? The term COI is sometimes used inappropriately as a weapon by one party to attempt to discredit others. We see this more and more frequently in the stem cell field with boosters of for-profit, non-FDA vetted adult stem cell clinics attacking scientists for supposed COIs for what…..apparently for simply
Real and imaginary conflicts of interest: a helpful guide Read More »
All science, whether biology or physics, whether microscopic or at the solar system level, is about experiments. Sometimes we as a society forget that. In fact, experiments are at the heart of investigations as diverse as studying cells to exploring space to medical treatments. For NASA, the last week has been a tale of two
NASA’s wickedly up & down week: broader lessons about science & medicine Read More »
If you ever had a really bad day, March 13, 2012 might have been just such a bad day for one Dr. Steven Victor, aka “Dr LookGood”, because he received an official warning letter from the FDA. Why? Dr. Victor, who reportedly greets each patient with the catch phrase “You look so much more beautiful than your picture”, is
Dr Lookgood, dermatologist to the stars, gets FDA warning letter Read More »
The FDA has a new CBER Director Dr. Vinay Prasad. CBER is the FDA’s biologics branch that handles things like cell therapies and vaccines. The branch has been in near-constant upheaval this year. For a time, Scott Steele was acting CBER Director. It wasn’t clear if he was there in a temporary capacity or would
FDA critic Vinay Prasad to run CBER: more politics than experience? Read More »
Peter Marks resigned last week as CBER director and now Dr. Scott Steele is the new acting biologics branch director. Marks resigned under pressure and went out firing back, referring to lies and other issues of HHS Secretary RFK Jr. One of the first things I thought when I heard about Marks’ departure was, “who
The marketing of what are loosely referred to as “regenerative peptides” including BPC-157 makes many health claims. Yet I can’t see that any have been conclusively proven to work in people. Even so, RFK Jr. claimed that the FDA was suppressing useful peptides. He mentioned this along with supposed suppression of “stem cells”. So maybe
RFK Jr. & claimed regenerative peptides like BPC-157 Read More »