This is a guest post on ISSCR 2013. By Dr. Susan Lim A record 4100 delegates attended the 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), held at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston from 12-15 June 2013. Co-sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Meeting featured 7 Plenary […]
Delightful overview of ISSCR 2013 by guest blogger Dr. Susan Lim Read More »
Is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on the road to cure Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using stem cells and specifically MSCs? Some folks seem to think it’s quite possible, but I remain skeptical. Still there have been some interesting developments. ACT has a relatively new patent filing for a mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) product that was just
ACT patent filing for MSCs: of Dancing Mice & Multiple Sclerosis Read More »
Remember Stemage? They are the cosmetic company with Kathy Ireland as their spokesperson whose anti-aging cream includes extracts from human stem cells. In Part 1 of this blog series on Stemage I gave some key background and raised some important questions. I also sent some questions to the company and now more recently to the
Stemage Stem Cell Anti-Aging Cream 2.0: Interview with Dr. David Scharp Read More »
Human cloning is not so far-fetched any more. Cloning of the Star Wars variety where new copies of people (although they would be babies, not adults of course at first) are produced is something I believe that we’ll see in the next 1-2 decades. Why would anyone bother to clone? Fame. Money. Vanity. There are
Concerns on the idea of human cloning for infertility Read More »
In this post I propose that researchers and patients advocate together to pressure the stem cell clinic industry to collect and publish such data. Why do I make such a proposal? Many thousands of patients have bought stem cell interventions from non-compliant stem cell clinics. Thousands of others are considering doing so. You can see
Call to patients: let’s advocate together for stem cell clinic publishing Read More »
As many of you know, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) announced today that it will dissolve as an organization. I both emailed and talked on the phone with the President of CAMR, Amy Rick (who by the way is also CEO of the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN)). Below is a concise
Interview with CAMR President & PAN CEO, Amy Comstock Rick Read More »
We had the big news last week that for the first time ever, human embryo cloning (aka “therapeutic cloning”) worked to produce apparently normal embryonic stem cells. I posted about it a few times here, here, and here. I have tried my best to be factual, open minded, and realistic about the issues. Frankly, the
Stem cell field stumbles on cloning dialogue Read More »
Will intellectual property (IP) wars over patent rights to one of the most exciting new stem cell technologies hold back getting novel therapies to patients such as IPS cells? Unfortunately, it’s very possible. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are very cool stem cells made from non-stem cells through a process called cellular reprogramming. iPS cells
Putting the IP in iPS cells: patent war looming? Read More »
I recently did a poll (still running here) about a hypothetical stem cell hotshot called Dr. Famous who might have published a recent paper that was sexy, but crappy. This situation sure rang a bell with a lot of people! In fact, a half dozen people contacted me directly (and privately) to talk about it
Go ahead & blog about Dr. Famous’ sexy, but crappy paper, most people say Read More »
One of my favorite stem cell scientists is Jeanne Loring of Scripps. She does great science and when you ask her questions, she frankly states her opinions and is clearly a gifted educator at heart too. Below is a Q&A interview I did with Jeanne on key issues of clinical translation of iPS cells. You
Jeanne Loring interview: optimism on clinical translation of IPS cells Read More »