Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka is warning patients against unproven stem-cell therapies offered at clinics and hospitals in a growing number of countries.
Japan's Yamanaka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine on October 8 together with British biologist John Gurdon, told the Reuters news agency the following day that many so-called stem-cell therapies were being conducted without any preclinical testing or safety checks and were highly risky.
Clinics in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Turkey, and Russia offer alleged stem-cell cures for a range of diseases, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.
Yamanaka and Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts, or other organs.
Japan's Yamanaka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine on October 8 together with British biologist John Gurdon, told the Reuters news agency the following day that many so-called stem-cell therapies were being conducted without any preclinical testing or safety checks and were highly risky.
Clinics in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Turkey, and Russia offer alleged stem-cell cures for a range of diseases, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's.
Yamanaka and Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts, or other organs.