Can science now cure MS in some patients with stem cells or is that near on the horizon? What about stem cells for other serious autoimmune disorders? What are the risks to patients in terms of health, money, and hope? What if patients must find $100,000 or $200,000 just to get into a clinical trial for […]
Burt Northwestern Stem Cell MS Trial Part 2: Marketing ‘Cure’-Like Outcomes? Read More »
Can California stem cell clinics make questionable marketing claims about their experimental, non-FDA approved offerings as long as they are not demonstrably false? Do such clinics not bear any legal requirement to provide informed consent to patients? A new court ruling raises such striking questions. San Diego stem cell clinic Stemgenex sells non-FDA approved experimental stem
Narrowed Stemgenex suit proceeds as court implies stem cell clinic loopholes Read More »
Two physicians are central to something called the SCOTS trial, Dr. Jeffrey Weiss and Steven Levy. Patients have claimed negative outcomes after participating in the trial. What’s going on here? SCOTS trial The recent NEJM paper reporting on the blinding of three patients in Florida may be just the beginning. More information has come out on negative
Dr. Jeffrey Weiss, SCOTS trial, & Patient Claims of Blindness Read More »
The Trump FDA commissioner nominee Dr. Scott Gottlieb could dramatically alter how the agency regulates investigational stem cell therapies. How might such changes unfold? There are potential upsides and downsides to the seismic shift that could be in the offing. Gottlieb has written in the past about his perception of FDA over-regulation of stem cells such
How Scott Gottlieb may transform the FDA’s approach to stem cells Read More »
The first report of the use of CRISPR gene editing in normal human embryos was published today as a short paper from a team in China. There have been rumors for over a year that more CRISPR human embryo papers were coming including some using normal embryos. Here’s one and we can now expect more even
Paper on 1st use of CRISPR in normal human embryos: problems remain Read More »
The Future of Genomic Medicine conference last week down in La Jolla at Scripps was one of my favorite meetings ever. I wish I had time to have live blogged it more beyond the one post I did about some gene editing talks. Below I discuss 10 top takeaways from this great meeting that I’m planning to attend
10 takeaways from Future of Genomic Medicine meeting Read More »
For me it’s been a wild week of grant and paper writing, grant review, going over data, and more, but finally I had a chance to watch this week’s Dr. Oz show on stem cell clinics in full last night and I give it an A+ grade. A show producer went undercover with an MS patient to a
Kudos to Dr. Oz for stellar stem cell clinic show: time for more action Read More »
The Scientists March on Washington (aka March for Science @ScienceMarchDC) is one of the biggest science movements I’ve ever seen. It’s gone from zero to sixty in about 2 seconds now with hundreds of thousands of supporters, but some important questions are arising about this event and its organizers. I continue to be enthusiastic about the March, but this week I’ve
4 key questions for March for Science organizers & what info I gathered on them Read More »
What happens for patients and clinics after a stem cell facelift gone wrong? What about other cell injection problems? Cell therapies raise new challenges and risks. You can stop taking a pill or an injection treatment. However, you can’t stop or retract stem cell treatments if there’s a bad side effect. Unlike other kinds of
Clinics can’t retract problems like stem cell facelift gone wrong Read More »
Last week I posted my list of 2017 predictions for the stem cell field. Today a couple of days into 2017 I’m more focused on hope than realism. What would I wish for in the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena in the coming year? More stem cell clinical trial data posted and published. There are
Stem cell wish list for 2017 Read More »