News and Opinions
Why we need to modernize Informed Consent
I just spent a week at Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine. I enjoyed the experience of being immersed in all things tissue-regeneration, bio-printing, scaffold development, and, especially, the unique collaboration model they have with private...
New York City: a New Hub for Stem Cell Research
On December 2016, Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that the city’s next great industry is biotechnology. A lofty goal grounded in reality and backed with a $500 million funding commitment. Not long after this announcement, in April 2017, I visited New York to witness...
Time for a national registry for all regenerative cell therapies
In December 2015, the Bipartisan Policy Center –a Washington, D.C. nonprofit think-tank– published a seminal paper entitled Advancing Regenerative Cellular Therapy -Medical Innovation Healthier Americans. This Report provided information about the nature of cell...
The World Stem Cell Summit and the power of collaboration
Twelve years ago my nonprofit organization founded an annual conference that evolved into the World Stem Cell Summit. Over time, this event has brought together thousands of thought leaders and stakeholders from around the globe. All came with a shared passion, to...
Stem Cells from the Edge of Space
Stem cells have been lauded for their potential to cure a large array of cell based conditions, from muscular dystrophy to cancer to Parkinson’s Disease. But they have another, lesser known use: as tools for research into how human cells respond to an almost limitless...
When is a cure, a cure?
What happens when a cell-based therapy gets characterized as a "cure"? A Patient’s Answer May Be Surprising. How is using the word “cure” at this stage of our clinical translation of regenerative medicine likely to impact patients the most? I’ve considered these...
The emerging role of pigs in regenerative medicine
Fifty years ago in a bygone era, my assignment was to deliver dozens of Smithfield gift hams at Christmastime in the Richmond suburb of Henrico County, Virginia. My father was a real estate developer embroiled in a challenging fight to rezone property for multi-family...
Announcing the 4th Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course
4th annual Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course June 5 - 9, 2017, Winston-Salem, North Carolina We at Regenerative Medicine Foundation are proud to be partnering with The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) for the fourth annual Regenerative...
A Story For Science: Call to Action, or Currency?
Everybody loves a good story. It doesn’t really matter if it’s true or false or somewhere in between. For stories, the truth is found in the telling - in the narrative. When we hear a story, we’re as much captured by the way it’s told, the meaning behind the...
Stem cell clinics in the legal crosshairs
Columnist Mitchell Hiltzik savaged the La Jolla-based StemGenix Medical Center “The stem cell therapies offered by La Jolla clinic aren’t FDA approved, may not work- and cost $15,000” reads the title of his piece on the LA Times. StemGenix is the subject of a federal...
Welcome to the Disquieting Era of Sheefs
Sheef /ʃiːf/ noun acronym. Synthetic Human Entity with Embryo-like Features. “Change is avalanching upon our heads and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.” Alvin Toffler (1970)- Future Shock Stem cell engineering has leaped forward so fast that...
Mayo Clinic has credibility, prestige to be game changer in regenerative medicine, says keynote speaker Bernard Siegel.
Left to right are Bernard Siegel, J.D., keynote speaker, and Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., medical director, Center for Regenerative Medicine, at the Mayo Clinic Symposium on Regenerative Medicine and Surgery.March 31, 2017 As a large medical practice, Mayo Clinic...
First transplant of reprogrammed stem cells from another person
A Japanese man has been the first human to receive "reprogrammed” stem cells from another person. As I discussed in detail in a recent post, Japan has implemented a national strategy to develop and translate induced pluripotent stem cells technologies. Japanese...
Towards an endless supply of human blood
What are the implications of scientists creating “immortal” cell lines comprised of healthy red blood cells for transplant and research? An article written by CNN producer Michael Nedelman reports that British scientists, led by University of Bristol researcher Jan...
Clinical Trial Results Buoy Hope for Spinal Cord Injury Patients
The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine,has announced the publication of its first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Phase I clinical trial involving Schwann cells used to repair the damaged spinal cord. The...
Converging Technologies and Stem Cells: Towards a Bioartificial Kidney
One of the most exciting trends in medicine today is the invention of new technologies and treatments that depend on the convergence of multiple technologies. Some of these fields include wireless computing, microelectronics, nanotechnology, bioengineering, cell...
CIRM’s Translating Center and Pitching Machine Seek to Speed Up Clinical Trials in the US
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is launching the CIRM Translating Center (TC), the first center in the world designed specifically to overcome the unique challenge of manufacturing, safety testing, and other activities needed to successfully...
Why we need a path towards cures. An interview with Sandy Barker
Sandy Barker's life changed when her 13 year-old son Christian was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer known as Hypo-diploid Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This was the start of a journey through fear, suffering, and hope, culminating in the painful...
Anouncing the 2016 Stem Action Award Honorees
We are honored and excited to present four extraordinary individuals with the 2016 Stem Cell Action Awards: two visionary philanthropists strategically building translational research projects; a path-finding diabetes researcher motivating the biomedical community to...
Stem Cells heal five damaged monkey hearts
Scientists in Japan have used cardiac muscle cells derived from the stem cells of a monkey to heal the damaged hearts of five other monkeys. The recipient monkeys showed improved cardiac contractile function at 4 and 12 weeks after transplantation, and no evidence of...
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