The California Stem Cell Agency CIRM seems to be in budget cutting mode these days, which from a general perspective makes sense as CIRM seeks to continue operating on its remaining funding through a longer period of time as far out as to 2020. However, not all cuts are necessarily positive. For example, CIRM reportedly (note: many …
CIRM 2.0 Should Include Bridges Training Program Read More »
Last week I went to the lab safety training that is required on an annual basis. I believe I’ve gone to it about a half-dozen times now and I know certain parts by heart. However this time there was something brand new. Active shooter training. I have to admit that caught my attention. What is …
American Lab Safety Training Now Includes Active Shooter Prep Read More »
With all the excitement over the potential of stem cells to transform medicine, a key bottleneck is physician training. Just how many doctors in the entire US have years of real experience and training in clinical use of stem cells….hmmm, let’s see….I can only think of a few in the whole country. Yes, it’s really …
Crash course stem cell training for docs puts patients at risk Read More »
One of the problems in the stem cell field is that so few doctors have adequate training in stem cells (biology, transplantation, regulatory issues, GMP, ethics, patient rights, etc) and yet they are treating loads of patients in a for-profit setting. This not puts patients at great risk, but also the physicians themselves are putting …
Would you want a GI specialist doing your heart surgery? How about a radiologist doing your brain surgery? I wouldn’t. So why then do so many patients accept that the doctor doing their stem cell transplant has no training in that area? I’m doing a series on eight simple reasons not to get an unlicensed …
Today, a judge issued a complex, temporary restraining order (PDF here, provided by Celltex) regarding Texas stem cell company Celltex and Human Biostar Inc (HBI)/Biostar, former partners who are now in conflict and have sued each other. For more background see here, here, and here. Note that while both parties have sued each other, the judge’s ruling …
There has been a lot of publicity about the reported stem cell treatment of NY Yankees pitcher Bartolo Colon. According to several sources, Colon received his treatment in his native Dominican Republic. Major League Baseball reportedly seems most concerned about this case, at least publicly, because human growth hormone (hGH) might have been used in …
Stem cell sports medicine: trying to win the World Series during Spring training Read More »
If you remember xenobots, mobile clusters of frog cells, now you might be interested to learn that some of the same team brings us human cell clusters called anthrobots. Both frog and human cellular clusters are considered types of biobots or robots made of cells. To me, anthrobots seem akin to human organoids or assembloids. …
Dishing on biobots like xenobots & anthrobots vs. organoids Read More »
A stem cell clinic in the Cell Surgical Network chain has just been sued allegedly for causing vision loss in a patient. By my count, across the U.S. this makes at least 5 patients who have said they were either totally blinded or had some major vision loss after getting stem cells injected into their …
New suit for vision loss against Cell Surgical Network clinic Read More »
Last week we lost Meri Firpo, a great scientist and dear friend in the stem cell community who touched many lives in positive ways. Today’s post is a tribute to Meri, who passed away from breast cancer. If you want to add a tribute please add a comment. Meri Firpo short bio Meri received her …
Tribute to pioneering stem cell scientist Meri Firpo Read More »