Stem Cell Video Flap: A Back Story on How the Affair Broke

A San Diego stem cell scientist today shared the back story on development of a stem cell video ruckus earlier this month that snared a dozen or more scientists, including the president of the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

Jeanne Loring, chief scientific officer of Aspen Neuroscience,

Jeanne Loring, San Diego UT photo

wrote about the affair on The Niche, a blog published by UC Davis researcher, Paul Knoepfler.

Her account told how she became aware of the video, Healthcare Revolution, on the morning of Thursday June 13 when she was notified that the video would be released a few days later and included her. Loring wrote,

"I was mystified about how this happened, so Thursday evening I sent an email with the subject 'Help! what do you know about this 'documentary' to the 9 people on the documentary’s website whose emails I had: Bruce Levine, Evan Snyder, Larry Goldstein, Arnie Caplan, Josh Hare, Paolo DeCoppi, Tony Atala, Julie Allickson, and Maria Millan. None of them seemed to know either."

The next day Loring asked the producers to remove her from the video, which they did. Loring's post today said,

"I was very, very relieved. I checked the website later that day, and my photo was gone. Over the next few days I heard from the colleagues I’d contacted earlier, and gradually they too asked to be removed. It was fascinating to watch the 'episode experts' disappear one by one from the website.

"I tried watching one of the newly edited episodes. I was sickened by it and couldn’t watch to the end. I’m so glad I’m not in it."