I’m taking a short break from working on a grant progress report this morning (yes, it’s Christmas Eve) so I thought I’d do a post on the holidays. As the very exciting, complicated year of 2012 winds to a close and the holidays are here, I thought perhaps it is a time to put things […]
Some holiday reflections on stem cells and people Read More »
Every year around this time I put my “best of” the year in stem cells including awards such as my Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. For example here are the 2011 awards. This year I’m also trying with difficult to decide on what was the craziest thing for stem cells that happened in
What was the strangest event for stem cells in 2012? Pick from top 5 in poll Read More »
So far in my series of eight simple reasons not to get an unlicensed stem cell treatment I’ve covered three compelling reasons: potential loss of insurance coverage for negative outcomes that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, failure of patient follow up by the doctors and clinics, and exclusion from future clinical trial participation.
This morning here at The World Stem Cell Summit there was a healthy, frank discussion of the risks associated with receiving unlicensed, unproven stem cell therapies. Dr. Jim Guest presented first and gave a great talk about the risks associated with stem cell treatments. One such risk that was mentioned is inadequate characterization of stem
Frank panel on hidden dangers of stem cell treatments to patients at WSCS2012 Read More »
The field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has really shaken up science over the last half dozen years reversing our notion that differentiated cells are stuck in that fate, when in reality they are plastic and can “turn back the clock” to become embryonic stem cell-like cells. Now we have an iPSC paper in Nature,
Surprising human mosaicism means not all your cells have the same DNA Read More »
Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. is a publicly traded (NASDAQ) biotech Israeli company that is developing stem cell treatments based on the use of expanded placental stem cells called PLX cells. The Pluristem PLX drug is not approved for treating patients at this time in any country, however Pluristem has treated a handful of patients via something
Money and stem cell ‘miracles’: Pluristem questioned on ethics Read More »
The Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa is going on in my former hometown of La Jolla, Ca on Halloween. I wish I could have been there, but I’m too swamped with a lot of stuff right now including teaching. If I was there, I’d be asking questions including, I hope, tough ones. Here are
Truly frightening questions for stem cell field on Halloween Read More »
The odds of Mitt Romney becoming our next President seem to be increasing. If Romney becomes our next president, what will he do about stem cells? He’ll be an active enemy of embryonic stem cell research. He’ll support the crazy personhood movement. Why do I say that? Earlier this year I had a run in
If Romney wins, look for extremist Witherspoon Council to control his stem cell policy Read More »
I was fortunate enough to do my postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (aka “The Hutch”) in Seattle. I was a postdoc for more years than I’d like to admit, but it was a wonderful experience. The Hutch is the kind of place where you can imagine making the impossible become possible
A tribute to Nobel Laureate E. Donnall Thomas, a true stem cell pioneer Read More »
Hisashi Moriguchi. He is arguably at the center of one of the biggest science scandals of 2012. This is the guy who lied about doing iPS cell transplants into human patients. He also lied about being affiliated with Harvard & its primary teaching hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for many years after he left there. He
Harvard spokesman: MGH withdrawing puzzling Moriguchi 2010 iPS cell patent application Read More »