The Rise of Unproven Stem Cell Therapies Turned this Obscure Scientist into an Industry Watchdog

August 4, 2017

(Science) – Knoepfler, though housed in the Shriners Hospitals for Children here, isn’t a physician. And his University of California (UC), Davis, lab doesn’t study arthritis or eye disease, nor does he have any experience developing a stem cell therapy. He mostly uses stem cells to study cancer-causing gene mutations. But thanks to The Niche, a blog he has run since 2010, Knoepfler has become an unlikely authority—and a dogged voice of caution—on the clinical use of stem cells.