CRISPR applications in the real world The “breakthrough” gene-editing tool, CRISPR Cas9, has been utilized for various purposes since its popularization and commercialization in the early 2010s. While possible uses of gene editing in humans tend to get the most attention, the application of CRISPR-Cas9 also encompasses the animal world and the analysis of a multitude of species from common livestock to exotic, wild animals. The use of CRISPR gene-editing in these animals involves constructing animal models for the research of disease mechanisms and …Read More
It’s usually a tossup as to whether my weekly reads skew more towards stem cells/regenerative medicine or cancer. Other times they are more enriched for genomics and epigenetics articles. Seeds of cancer in normal skin, Nature News & Views Engineering synthetic morphogen systems that can program multicellular patterning, Science. Pig fat can be used to grow jawbones for humans, Science Mag news piece. Pig fat stem cells can aid in jawbone growth. Here’s the original Science Translational Medicine research pub. Inherited myeloproliferative neoplasm risk …Read More
It’s encouraging to see that the states including now Arkansas via their attorney generals (or is it attorneys general?) are taking more action against stem cell clinic firms, but the big scope of AG action has somewhat surprised me. Arkansas AG suit The latest AG action on a stem cell clinic type firm comes from Arkansas. The State AG there has just sued a regenerative clinic there along with people involved in the firm. Here are the core details from the AG announcement, which …Read More
There is a puzzle when it comes to the controversial idea of using cord blood for autism, because two of the strongest proponents are the autism cord blood program at Duke and for-profit, unproven stem cell clinics. On first glance it seemed like this was a bit of an odd couple to me. The links between the Duke autism program and one particular Panamanian stem cell clinic called generically enough “The Stem Cell Institute” appear to go beyond just their enthusiasm about cord blood …Read More