In Italy, Davide Vannoni made an astonishing claim: he could cure fatal illnesses with stem-cell therapy.
Yet, Nature News reports:"Well over 100 people with conditions ranging from Parkinson's to motor neuron disease to coma — nearly half of them children — have already signed up to participate in the government-sponsored trial, despite there being no published evidence that the therapy could be effective. (...)
Last year, the US Patent Office issued a ‘pre-final’ rejection of Vannoni's patent — one that allows re-submission, although Vannoni has not yet resubmitted. The rejection noted that the application included insufficient details on methodology, that differentiation was unlikely to occur during the very short incubation time described, and that the appearance of nerve-like cells in the culture is likely to “reflect cytotoxic changes”.
Furthermore, in the patent (which is far from complete), the images are not new.
They are taken from a scientific paper (Schegel'skaya, E. A. et al., 2003), although the patent lacks the reference. Plagiarism?
The trial, which will test Vannoni's method, has been postponed three times because the medical entrepreneur has not yet revealed his method.
As such, a committee cannot start the trial that is intended to show the efficacy of this therapy.
It seems that the fuzz Mr. Vannoni created, should not be taken seriously. It merely fakes a last resort for dying children and adults.
If it turns out to be a scam, must this individual be punished according to you?
Source:
Italian stem-cell trial based on flawed data : Nature News & Comment