[INTERVIEW] State of Stem Cell Research in New Zealand

Submitted by Gold on Mon, 2009-11-23 09:11

Hey all,

Just received this from Douglas Ormrod of http://neurological.org.nz/

We may have our first potential interview.

Hi Gold

I work for the Neurological Foundation.

Our Communications manager Adrienne Kohler would be good to interview on the topic of Stem Cell therapy scams currently happening in Mexico and China. Currently NZ parents are dragging their children with cerebral palsy there to get cord blood cell injections at $60,000 a pop. Cord blood does contain stem cells, but they are haemopoetic not plruipotent stem cells so cannot differentiate into neuronal cells. But can form tumors – and infection is also common after these treatments.

Adrienne (and Dr Bronwen Connor) recently appeared on TV7 and Sunday talking about this scam. I have mentioned to Adrienne that you might contact her.

You can contact her on Adrienne [dot] Kohler [at] neurological [dot] org [dot] nz

Cheers

Douglas

Do we have anyone with an interest in this area? If so, would you be interested in performing the interview? If not, can you post a list of questions that should be asked?

Siouxsie, is this something that you may be interested in talking about? Would you be interested in being an interviewer? Or more interested in researching or being interviewed than being on the questioning side of the mic?

Cheers,
Gold

‹ Planning Podcast crew ›

Stem cell interview

Submitted by Ubermoo on Thu, 2009-11-26 19:27.

Hi Gold/everyone

I'm happy to get in touch with Adrienne and Bronwen to set up an interview.

Perhaps it could link in with the importance of legitimate trials of things like stem cell therapy where patients do not know whether they have received the real therapy or placebo, unlike those where patients pay for experimental therapy and then report some benefits which may or may not be real?

Best wishes

Siouxsie

Sweet :)

Submitted by Gold on Sat, 2009-11-28 17:08.

Thanks Siouxsie.

That's great. Feel free to get the ball rolling yourself. If you need or want any help, input or advice just shout out someone should be able to contribute.

I imagine that Adrienne and Bronwen wouldn't mind doing multiple interviews if the topics are well... on topic. :)