[timtadh]

My wife works in cell biology and worked with stem cells for the last several years. Differentiation protocols are very difficult. She was working on turning IPS cells into lung epithelial cells so she could study the effects of CFTR malfunction with genetically matched control cells.

The differentiation protocol she was trying to replicate is several month long protocol. Because each cell line has unique properties protocols must be "optimized" for each line before it will work. She ended up switching to primary lung epithelial cells for her experiments because the differentiation protocol was too difficult to replicate.

I guess my point is cell biology is very tricky and stem cell biology seems (from an outside perspective) to be even trickier. However, that isn't a reason not to be sceptical -- it just means it may take some time to really answer the question of whether or not this acid bath protocol works.

[Fomite]

This was my thought. So far 10 attempts to replicate it failing isn't a good sign, but I'm willing to bet, based on my track record when I did wet lab research, that the lab that produced the study (if indeed it is correct) failed more than 10 times.