88: Stem Cells - Myth vs Reality with Hans Keirstead, PhD

I've been hearing about stem cells for decades. When I was a medical student going into neurosurgery, I seriously considered focusing my research on neuroregeneration with stem cells. As it turns out, few advancements were made in that arena for many years until Hans Keirstead and his team did some groundbreaking work on quadriplegics.

 

Now Hans is focused on longevity. Hans may have found a new type of treatment for what I call inflammaging. His company, Immunis, isolates various proteins and growth factors from pluripotent stem cells that can then be used to treat pretty much all types of inflammatory-related disease (which is just about everything). I encourage you to listen to the show because there is so much snake oil in the field of stem cells that it's good to get a grasp on fact vs fiction.

 

Timestamps:

02:00 Stem Cells 101

08:18 The Mechanism Behind 

16:47 Stem Cells For Cancer

29:22 How Do Stem Cells Make You Live Longer?

46:25 FDA Indications

50:30 The Price