Author name: Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D.

Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. is a Professor at UC Davis School of Medicine in Cell Biology and Human Anatomy. His lab does research on stem cells and cancer, especially from an epigenomic angle. He also has been working on policy and ethics matters for many years. The author of 3 books, he also has a popular TED talk on designer babies.

Weekly reads: Beth Shapiro & de-extinction, mice with two dads, stem cell patches

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Beth Shapiro, De-extinction

Biologist and ancient DNA expert Beth Shapiro is becoming more well known for doing de-extinction research. Yet Shapiro used to be a de-extinction skeptic. Ten years ago she wrote “How to Clone a Mammoth.” In the book she mentioned serious challenges related to de-extinction. Now she is the CSO for a firm trying to make […]

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Stem cell therapy side effects & risks at clinics

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stem cell therapy side effects, stem cell risks

What are possible side effects of stem cell therapy ? Patients often reach out to ask about such risks They usually refer to unproven stem cell clinics. Today’s post addresses the scope of stem cell therapy side effects and risks based on available hard data. It’s also important to discuss possible unknown risks. I have

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Weekly reads: NIH freeze even before RFK confirmation, FDA warnings, RP stem cell trial data

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NIH freeze

RFK isn’t even confirmed as HHS Secretary and things are going south already with an NIH freeze. What do I mean? NIH freeze could do lasting damage to biomedical research The Trump Administration has frozen many NIH processes including meetings such as study sections that evaluate grant proposals. No study sections means almost no new

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Winner of The Screamers Science Hype Award: local TV stations pushing stem cell clinics

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The Screamers Award, Science Hype Award

It’s important to pay attention to science hype, which is the rationale for The Screamers Science Hype Awards. As far as I know, it’s the only award for science hype. Exaggerating research and medical potential clearly does harm. I wrote a few weeks ago about the nominees for the 2024 The Screamers Awards. Now it’s

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Updated 2025 List of FDA-Approved Cell and Gene Therapies

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FDA

What are the current FDA-approved cell and gene therapies? How many of those involve true stem cells? Many of us have wished for a more specific list of FDA-approved stem cell therapies. Patients and fellow scientists often asked me about such lists. They even wish for annotated lists. For that reason, I’ve made and kept

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Weekly reads: FDA modernization, TFs on the brain, mortality timer, pluripotent trials

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FDA

How will things change at the FDA under the second Trump Administration? It’s a key question for our field but not easy to answer. Most likely there will be more instability at the agency. Some leaders, like of CDER, have already left. in my overall regenerative medicine predictions for 2025, I’ve included more predictions about

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2025 PRP fact-check and review: cost and possible benefits

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PRP-Platelet-Rich-Plasma-being-injected-into-a-hand

Platelet-rich plasma or PRP has become one of the most commonly used regenerative products at unproven clinics. The orthopedics departments at many universities are now offering PRP as well. What is behind this trend? How much data are there to back up all this enthusiasm for platelet-rich plasma? The goal of this post is to

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Weekly reads: grow a spine, China clears MSCs, Denise Richards, stem cell soups

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Notochord, growing a spine.

If you tell a scientist that they should be growing a spine, they might take you literally. For instance, if you say this because you want a scientist to show some courage and speak out about something difficult, instead they might try to make an actual human spine in a lab. We’ll start there this

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FDA stem cell oversight at risk as clinics to ask SCOTUS to weigh in

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FDA stem cell oversight

The U.S. Supreme Court could soon have a historic opportunity to limit the scope of FDA stem cell oversight. A large stem cell clinic firm now says it plans to ask SCOTUS to review a case it recently lost on appeal to the FDA. If SCOTUS takes the case, the FDA could find its powers

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Georgia AG wins $5.1M judgment against stem cell clinic firm Superior Healthcare

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STEVEN D. PEYROUX, Georgia stem cell clinic

The Georgia Attorney General has aggressively pursued stem cell clinic firms including one called Superior Healthcare. There is some more good news from Georgia. The FTC is involved too. Superior Healthcare, et al must pay $5.1 million Georgia AG Chris Carr has won more than $5.5 million in a judgment against this stem cell clinic

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