http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-unapproved-stem-cell-treatments-20160630-snap-story.html?utm_campaign=CHL%3A+Daily+Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=31233055&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8svW-TMtAyJFwmvKzoDjfSTTtMgsgUedtyaYE4wt_o_C_TfMcpXDmfnnRYA2UDkrCnoabntZCBkmKkB9YYl0RLteiYnA&_hsmi=31233055

From coast to coast, at least 351 businesses at 570 locations are marketing stem cell therapies that have not been fully vetted by medical researchers or blessed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Paul Knoepfler, a bona fide stem cell researcher at UC Davis with a doctorate in molecular pathology, and Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota who studies the ramifications of medical tourism, scoured the Internet to find companies advertising all sorts of stem cell treatments directly to patients and their families. They used nearly 100 search terms to identify as many websites as they possibly could — and turned up a lot more than they thought they would.