Stem Cell 101

To understand how to protect yourself from misleading stem cell clinics, it is first necessary to understand what stem cells are and what they can (and can't) do.

• What are stem cells?
• What do stem cells do?
• How do stem cells do their jobs (differentiate)?
• Are there limits to the cell types into which a stem cell can differentiate?
• What are the different stem cell types?
• What are the risks?
• How can we use stem cells?
• A couple of terms

Stemedix: A Closer Overview of the Clinic

The Side View of the Stemedix Building  (courtesy of http://stemedix.com/about/)

The clinic in question today is Stemedix™ Adult Stem Cell Therapy which is located at 970 Lake Carillon Drive, Suite 300in Saint Petesburg, Florida. 

After looking through the Stemedix website and multiple social media sources, origins of the company are not completely certain. The website advertises to have “U.S. Board-Certified Physicians: Trained medical staff experienced in your diagnosis and treatment.” However, it does not mention any of the physician names/ information so the only way to really get to know any Stemedix physician is to directly contact the facility's Care Coordinator.

In Recent News: Dr. Balshi's Controversial Court Case

Retrieved from: http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?

id=210572493&z=6afa4594

  

Case Name: Stemgenix, Inc v. Balshi

California Southern District Court

Case No. 3:15-cv-00411

Filed 02/24/2015

    Recently, I found that Dr. Thomas Balshi is currently being sued by a rival stem cell company StemGenex, Inc for trademark infringement and breach of contract. The prosecution accuses Balshi of supposedly violating a contract between him and StemGenex. The contract entailed that StemGenex would refer patients to Balshi, and he would perform the stem cell procedures, given a "predetermined price." This went into effect on August 30, 2012. StemGenex claims that Balshi violated their contract by diverting their referred patients to Stemedix. 

    They also claim that Dr. Balshi had a large role in the creation of Stemedix and used StemGenex marketing techniques to promote his company. According to the prosecution, there is evidence from a phone call made on December 15, 2014 between Balshi and the founder of StemGenex, Rita Alexander, which has Balshi admitting to being the founder of Stemedix. However, the Defense denies any relations between Balshi and Stemedix. Currently, StemGenex was granted time to gather further evidence for the trial.

     Although we should not jump to any conclusions before a verdict is reached, if the allegations against Dr. Balshi ARE valid and Stemedix IS in fact more of a stem cell therapy consulting company, this would mean Balshi would be making double the profit (profit from Stemedix consulting and profit from providing separate stem cell therapies).