May 2017 - The Niche

Journal club review of new CRISPR ‘lots of off-target activity’ mouse paper

May 31, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 3 Comments

A new, brief study in mice from the Vinit Mahajan lab argues CRISPR can have very large numbers of off-target sites. Their paper is entitled “Unexpected mutations after CRISPR–Cas9 editing in vivo” and was published in Nature Methods.This work has garnered a lot of attention in the media. Let’s take a journal club review kind of approach …

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Stem cell fake news driving biotech investors or vice versa…or what?

May 30, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 5 Comments

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Is there a proliferating stem cell fake news problem in the biotech world? More broadly, the SEC is cracking down on the mess that is fake biotech news, but what about fake news on stem cell biotechs more specifically? Already in the past year I’ve seen examples of possible stem cell fake news. Hyped press releases (PR) …

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Stem cells on Memorial Day: 5 concrete ways they may help troops

May 29, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

Stem cells and regenerative medicine are going to have big future impact across a broad spectrum of health problems, but there are specific ways they may be of particular positive impact for our men and women in service. Here on Memorial Day I’ve focused on 5 main areas where I predict that stem cells and …

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Brief update from Bob Lanza on Astellas stem cell program

May 28, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 25 Comments

Late in 2015, one of the pioneering stem cell and regenerative medicine biotechs, Ocata Therapeutics (fka as ACT or Advanced Cell Technology) was acquired by Astellas Pharma. At the time of purchase, Ocata had a number of areas of focus, but was most closely followed for its development of human embryonic stem cell-based retinal pigmented epithelial …

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Battle over Texas stem cell legislation flares as it nears end

May 26, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

Will Texas go it alone by giving stem cell clinics free rein or will it break new ground by passing laws that promote reasonable stem cell clinical practices with safeguards? Some middle ground? It’s a dramatic moment for the stem cell field as legislation under consideration in Texas could have big impact on stem cell businesses …

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Ongoing story on stem cell fake news: send me your tips

May 25, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 4 Comments

I’m working on an investigative story on fake news in the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena. Is there a growing stem cell fake news problem in the biotech world? More broadly, the SEC is cracking down on the mess that is fake biotech news, but what about publicly-traded stem cell biotechs more specifically? Already in the past …

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GOP reps to Trump: fire NIH Director Collins for stem cell research support

May 23, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 13 Comments

Should there be a religious or moral litmus test for the NIH Director? A few dozen super conservative Republican members of Congress have written a letter to President Trump saying he should fire NIH Director Francis Collins. Why? Because they claim that Collins is not conservative enough for their taste and in particular they don’t …

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Blog reader survey results & winner of the stem cell swag

May 22, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

It’s fun and useful for me to learn about the readers of this blog in terms of who they are and what their interests are in terms of the types of posts that I do. Below are the results of two recent reader surveys that I did to get this kind of information. The two …

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Stem cells Sunday brunch of good news, fun links, & cool papers

May 21, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

Enjoy! A Sunday brunch for the brain of science news, helpful links, and notable new papers including on stem cells. News and links CBER Director Focuses on Flexibility to Advance Regenerative Medicines Lab-Grown Blood Stem Cells Produced at Last Transplanted stem cells become eggs in sterile mice Maryland fund awards $8.5 million for stem cell research Positively good news from Asterias …

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Human embryo CRISPR pub includes plagiarism: the victim’s unique account

May 18, 2017 February 1, 2021 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 5 Comments

Cut, modify, paste… It’s kind of a CRISPR mantra for those of us using gene editing in the lab. But it’s supposed to be happening just on DNA, right? Now it appears that someone on a team of human embryo CRISPR researchers possibly got carried away with the cutting-modifying-pasting mindset to take it beyond DNA to also do …

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Month: May 2017