Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro’s medical team gathers around her on the day she received her gene-therapy stem-cell transplant. (Photo: Padilla-Vaccaro family, via UCLA Health)A London-based biotech firm has given up its life-saving treatment for the bubble baby disease and turned it over to California’s $12 billion stem cell agency and UCLA, where it was developed with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Stem cell research involving a "PCR" strip. (Photo: Science Photo, via Shutterstock)California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is remaining mum on regulation of “snake oil,” stem cell clinics as the Golden State pursues a go-slow approach to cracking down on the dubious treatments.More than 100 such clinics are operating in California, the most of any state in the nation. New York state earlier this month took the lead among states in attempting to regulate the clinics.
Stem cell research in what is known as a "PCR strip." (Image: Science Photo, via Shutterstock)Legislation to help stem the tide of unregulated stem cell clinics in California is still being drafted, but is expected to be introduced by the end of this month. Art Torres, vice chairman of the California stem cell agency, is working on the measure, which is expected to be authored by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo.
A rabbit in a laboratory where cosmetic research is performed. (Photo: Artfully Photographer, via Shutterstock)The warring sides involved in California’s groundbreaking animal-tested cosmetics bill have reached agreement, and a compromise bill now appears headed for the governor’s desk. As originally written, SB 1249 by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, would have prohibited importation and sale in California of cosmetics that contain ingredients tested on animals, starting in 2020.