Paul Knoepfler
@stemcells
Professor at UC Davis studying cancer & stem cell epigenomics. I also do outreach and blog The Niche Also stem cell YouTube channel STAT column
Sunrise nature pics from Putah Creek (Fun thing is that "Green River" by CCR was about Putah Creek.) Otter family were snarfing so many crawdads
Midweek #stemcell & regenerative medicine news: another FDA warning & Florida state stem cell law problems already, bigger concerns about many such state laws, non-independent FDA ipscell.com/2026/08/midw... #stemcells
ICYMI: Florida anti-FDA stem cell law is already a big mess ipscell.com/2025/05/upco... Many clinics & suppliers acting like it's a gold rush, ignoring FDA non-compliance, plus some operating outside limited scope of even FL state law. People will get hurt and ripped off by some clinics
PCAC finally finds a peptide it doesn't love: narrowly emideltide is not recommended for compounding. Maybe RFK Jr. doesn't care about this one? Slightly different version of the panel voted on this one, which likely explains "no" vote.
Blast from the past, which is starting to feel like ancient history. Ring any bells for anyone else? Microarray days...
This sunflower was a hotbed of activity. See the crab spider at 12 o'clock hunting bees and the ladybug at 5 o'clock. Other insects too. Anyone know if this kind of spider can eat ladybugs?
Tonight before sunset heard a bird call in my backyard I didn't recognize. Turns out it was a baby California Towhee calling for its parent. Also tiger swallowtail #birding
Went birding early this morning at a nature area for 2 hrs. Coolest birds were in the parking lot of course LOL. A pair of hooded orioles.
A few interesting birds early this morning: Olive-sided flycatcher and Black-headed Grosbeak
Western Tanager (pink head) vs. Bullock's Oriole (the more orange one). Who wins?
Kennedy unbanned the unproven peptides today. These are just drugs with no good data.
In light of the news today FDA under RFK Jr. is moving to unban unproven peptides via the compounding advisory committee, it's still very odd that the DOJ just indicted someone related to many of these same peptides ipscell.com/2026/04/land...
ICYMI: Landmark fed indictment of clinic doc related to allegations on clinical use of popular "wellness" peptides like BPC-157, GHK, etc. ipscell.com/2026/04/land... Interesting timing as RFK Jr may make the FDA un-ban some of these soon
Landmark federal indictment for pop peptides alleged 'scheme' even as RFK Jr. may un-ban some ipscell.com/2026/04/land... #bpc157
ICYMI: FDA is investigating a death related to use of an unapproved placental extract. A Russian student and health influencer also died from this extract ipscell.com/2026/03/fda-... There is worry that wellness trends promoting unproven stuff like these extracts & peptides will lead to more deaths
ICYMI: More on Church & Epstein, how simple "no" could have been, making amends? ipscell.com/2026/03/more... Woody Allen b-day party invite is striking. Should Church pay back to a charity what he got from Epstein? @phylogenomics.bsky.social
Great epigenomics and chromatin meeting come up in the Bay Area. Check it out!
I find it amusing that even the staid sport of curling can have controversy at this Olympics
In support of the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act ipscell.com/2026/01/in-s... #stemcells #stemcell
Fun to get some pics of a Tropical Kingbird here in Sacramento, a bird that's usually in Mexico and southern Arizona
This has never felt more important than today. Doing & saying even small positive things makes a difference in difficult times
I'm planning to write more about this unproven & unapproved gene therapy (oligo-based) widely marketed in the US by clinics. I don't see how the FDA hasn't acted on the US clinics selling SOT therapy or Q-REstrain here ipscell.com/2024/03/us-c...
ICYMI: Colossal Biosciences wins 2025 The Screamers Award for science hype on incorrect dire wolf de-extinction claim ipscell.com/2025/12/colo... #stemcells #genetics
Random observation of the week. I found these 23-year-old rolls of lab tape in a plastic bag tucked into a binder in going through some old stuff. They still work perfectly despite being older than the undergrads in my lab
The cover of the Korean edition of my and my daughter's How to Build a Dragon book looks cool #CRISPR #stemcells www.amazon.com/How-Build-Dr...