Paul Knoepfler of the UC Davis School of Medicine has a bit of a hobby: keeping track of stem cell clinics operating in the U.S. He estimates that there are 1,000-2,000 in the U.S. alone, offering unproven treatments using adult stem cells. “That’s a reality that I think a lot of us in the stem cell field, the regenerative medicine field, didn’t really fully grasp until maybe about 10 years ago. And the FDA was kind of slow to pick up on this as well. And so what do we do about that?” he told me on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.”
That’s just one of the questions he says is currently facing regenerative medicine during a time of both scientific and regulatory upheaval. We discussed how to balance safety and efficacy, why Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is such a fan of stem cells, how the FDA can support the biotech industry, the forceful marketing of cord blood banking companies, and much more — including how to build a dragon using CRISPR.
Our conversation was inspired by Knoepfler’s STAT+ column, “Lab Dish,” where he writes about regenerative medicine.
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