A big, fat elephant in “the room” of the commercial stem cell field today is something called stromal vascular fraction or SVF, made from human fat tissue or adipose. If you care at all about stem cells or the stem cell field more generally, you had better educate yourself on SVF. You can learn a […]
Law and Order SVF: what is stromal vascular fraction? Read More »
I recently interviewed Drs. Elliot Lander and Mark Berman of the Cell Surgical Network. It’s an affiliated chain of clinics selling stem cell interventions for more than a dozen medical conditions. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here of the interview where we cover 10 important questions. Today is Part 3, where I explain why their answers
Cell Surgical Network Series Part 3: Key Concerns Read More »
Today I am posting Part 2 of my interview with Drs. Lander and Berman of the Cell Surgical Network. You can read Part 1 here, which is an interesting look inside the Network. The final portion of this blog post series, Part 3, is my take on their answers and you might not be surprised that
Cell Surgical Network Interview Part 2: SVF, FDA, & Homologous Use Read More »
Yesterday I posted a list of a dozen potential candidates to be considered for the position of the new CIRM President. To be clear, that list is not my list. It is also not CIRM’s list and I’m sure that CIRM’s Search Committee has its own ideas of course. The list in yesterday’s post was
Some More Thoughts on the Search for a New CIRM President Read More »
Who might make a fantastic new CIRM President? The California stem cell community is abuzz with this question. This new President will not only lead CIRM today, but also in all likelihood will steer CIRM in its new incarnation after 2017, what I’ve called CIRM 2.0. At least that would be ideal. CIRM has posted a
Dozen Candidates To Be New CIRM President Read More »
The World Alliance Forum held a really great meeting yesterday in SF about the future of stem cells. Below, Johnathon Anderson has a great guest post summarizing the meeting. The collective brain power in the room was pretty staggering. The meeting brought together stem cell leaders from academia, industry, startup incubators and funding agencies. The purpose
Guest Post on the Future of Stem Cells: World Alliance Forum Meeting Read More »
On November 18 in Washington, D.C. the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences will hold a workshop on stem cell therapies. The meeting (agenda here) is also co-sponsored by ISSCR. I have some major concerns about this meeting. In principle and in a general sense, I believe this is the kind of meeting and
Puzzling Institute of Medicine stem cell workshop Read More »
I have to admit a small fascination for tabloid, wildly over the top stories about stem cells. Maybe it’s just that I need a good laugh to escape the black hole of academia at times even if only momentarily? Of course some crazy stem cell stories reflect actually dangerous situations for patients, but that doesn’t
TGIF: Craziest stem cell stories of the week Read More »
I recently held a flash 48 hour contest for free tickets to the World Alliance Forum on the future of stem cells at which Yamanaka and others will be speaking. Congrats to the winners, Sai Vemula and Johnathon Anderson. Here are their winning entries. Sai Vemula Editor, SSSCR-International, UC Berkeley, Molecular and Cell Biology B.A. This
This morning I particularly enjoyed a talk by Sui Huang focused on the application of mathematics as a tool to understand cell behavior and fate. I love this stuff! I just wish I was better at math and physics so I could have a deeper understanding of how they apply to stem cells. Huang is
Mountains in Banff: From Theoretical Stem Cells Ones to the Real Deal Read More »