Weekly reads: federal stem cell charges disappear, SCBEM ethics, diet & MYCN cancer, how to make a nose

by rss feed | Apr 12, 2026 | News Feeds, stem cell case, weekly reads

Over the years people have asked me why those selling unproven stem cells and more recently peptides haven’t faced more pushback. Cases do arise, but they often go nowhere. Civil cases like patient lawsuits against stem cell clinics are often settled. These are...

Weekly reads: 1st FDA-approved CIRM supported therapy, asymmetric histone inheritance, stem cell retraction

by rss feed | Apr 5, 2026 | CIRM, CIRM FDA, News Feeds, weekly reads

We recently saw exciting news with the first CIRM-funded therapy garnering FDA approval. Before we jump into that and other news and new publications, a reminder that my lab is still crowdfunding to support our brain tumor research in these tough funding times. Please...

Weekly reads: Gattaca stack, animal sacks, custom iPS cells, ImmunityBio FDA warning, mouse cloning limit

by rss feed | Mar 29, 2026 | Gattaca stack, human sacks, IPS Cell Portal, News Feeds, R3 Bio, weekly reads

You’ve probably heard of the film Gattaca, but what is a Gattaca stack? The first thing that came to mind was a peptide stack (oh no!). That is where people take groups of unproven peptides together, usually by injection. Yeah, not a great idea. So, what’s...

Weekly reads: the thymus and aging, Aspen upbeat 1 year data, paired organoids

by rss feed | Mar 22, 2026 | News Feeds, thymus aging, weekly reads

Connections between the thymus and aging are growing. Let’s start with that interesting area of research. The thymus and aging In Histology class at the med school here we teach that the thymus just naturally involutes. It mostly turns to adipose tissue with...

Weekly reads: Prasad exit & replacement, FDA on Leucovorin, Mexico’s stem cell clinic industry

by rss feed | Mar 15, 2026 | FDA, News Feeds, Prasad exit, weekly reads

Vinay Prasad, the outgoing CBER Director (right), with Commissioner Marty Makary, at a cell and gene therapy roundtable last year. Vinay Prasad is leaving the FDA again in a few weeks. As CBER Director, Prasad was all over the place on how he handled oversight of...

More on Church & Epstein, how simple “no” could have been, making amends?

by rss feed | Mar 10, 2026 | bioethics, Church Epstein, Georgarage, News Feeds, weekly reads

There have been more revelations about connections between George Church & Epstein in the past few weeks from the new Epstein files document drop. Church & Epstein I wrote earlier about how Jeffrey Epstein interacted with a team at Harvard/MGH. This included...