Search Results for: totipotent

Recommended reads: Dux, 3D printed ear brings Vacanti mouse to mind, AMD, more

June 4, 2022 / By / 2 Comments
Vacanti Mouse

Eight years ago two new Nature papers broke on the scene reporting supposed STAP cells with one of the senior authors, Charles Vacanti of Harvard, most well known previously for making the so-called “Vacanti mouse” along with his brother Joseph. The Vacanti mouse had a bioengineered human ear growing on its back. While STAP cells …

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Review of Peter Diamandis Fountain Life clinics: more than stem cell hype?

December 12, 2023 / By / 6 Comments
Fountain Life Peter Diamandis featured

Many of you readers know tech guru Peter Diamandis for his great X PRIZE, but he’s also involved in the regenerative medicine world including a new effort called Fountain Life. Teaming up with life coach Tony Robbins and others for Fountain Life raises some red flags for me. What’s in this article Peter Diamandis and …

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Stem cell therapy side effects & risks: infections, tumors & more

December 28, 2023 / By / 8 Comments
stem-cells-eyes side effects

What are possible stem cell therapy side effects? This is a common question I get asked. Most often it is asked by patients who reach out. They usually refer to risks at unproven stem cell clinics Check out the YouTube video below on our stem cell channel including my video on stem cell therapy side …

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What are adult stem cells & their clinical applications?

November 7, 2022 / By / 2 Comments
mesenchymal cells

When someone uses the term “adult stem cells” you might think that simply means stem cells from adults. However, it’s not that simple. The goal of today’s post is to help you get all the key facts about adult stem cells. This includes the different types of adult stem cells and their clinical potential. What …

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Weekly reads: court case, cancer stem cells, skin, pluripotency, & more

May 16, 2021 / By / Leave a Comment
chen et al fig 1e nat comm 2021 phc1

This was a busy week for me working on a grant due Friday and a bunch of other stuff including happily analyzing a bunch of data, but there were tons of interesting papers recently including on pluripotency. California stem cell clinic court case on in the background Along the way this week I was occasionally …

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Autologous vs allogeneic: all you need to know on therapy

June 8, 2022 / By / 4 Comments
autologous vs allogeneic

There are many ways to classify different stem cells including yours versus someone else’s cells, or in a clinical sense what we call an autologous vs allogeneic stem cell transplant. This post is focused on the difference between allogeneic (someone else’s cells) and autologous (your own) stem cell injections. As a stem cell biologist I …

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Mesenchymal cells or MSCs: definition, clinical potential, challenges

September 1, 2022 / By / 16 Comments
mesenchymal cells, MSCs, mesenchymal stem cells, multipotent stem cells

I confess that I’m old enough to remember when the acronym MSC stood unambiguously for “mesenchymal stem cells”, but should it refer to a broader term like “mesenchymal cells”? The field has moved in that direction. I think that’s the best way to go too and I’ll explain why. The goal of today’s post is …

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What is a teratoma tumor? Research & treatment

September 16, 2022 / By / 4 Comments
What is a teratoma? human stem cell teratoma knoepfler lab sm

Sometimes on The Niche or while teaching students as a professor here at UC Davis School of Medicine, I’ve been asked: What is a teratoma? Not all tumors are created equal and some like teratomas are particularly unusual. Exactly what is a teratoma tumor? Teratomas are germ cell tumors. What this means is that the …

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Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子) website posts dubious STAP cell validation data

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
STAP-cell-Obokata-2016

Haruko Obokata is most well-known for her role as first author of the now retracted two STAP cell Nature papers. These manuscripts claimed to have made pluripotent and even totipotent stem cells simply by stressing cells out with acid treatment or in other ways. Nobody else could get this method to work to create the so-called …

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6 recent stem cell good news stories including on liver disease

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
IPSC-array

Ready for some stem cell good news? It can be difficult at times in a cutting edge field like stem cells in terms of keeping upbeat about hopes of rapid translation to help patients with real, proven therapies. It takes a long time, money, dedication, and even a bit of luck for the researchers and …

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