Month: August 2019

Northwestern abruptly ending Burt HSCT autoimmune trials

February 1, 2021 / By / 55 Comments
Selma-Blair-HSCT

“HSCT Chicago Clinic Closing!” is the startling header in all caps on a patient-run Facebook page about a stem cell therapy clinical trial program at Northwestern University. What’s going on? Unfortunately, the promising field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases seems to have suffered an unexpected setback …

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‘Bottom of stem cell barrel’? Utah piece sparks legal threat

June 3, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
derek-lowe-e1564527793287

Up until now Utah hasn’t immediately come to mind as a hub for stem cell issues, but things are heating up there in 2019. Utah? I was going to do a blog post here on The Niche last month about perinatal (birth-related) biologics and stem cell-related supply companies in Utah. Some of their customers appear …

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Celeb stem cell clinic shots series: John Cleese ‘spam’ edition

February 1, 2021 / By / Leave a Comment
Excalibur-spamalot

When you read “spam, spam, spam” do you think of Monty Python? I do. Some folks may immediately think of email spam. There might even be a connection between the ubiquitous email spam and the old Monty Python spam. See the video below. What’s spam got to do with stem cells? Is there stem cell …

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Helpful tomato tips for growing great ones

May 24, 2023 / By / 3 Comments
unusual-tomatoes

Looking for some tomato tips? I do sometimes escape the lab into the outside world and once out of there I can often be found in my vegetable garden  looking after my tomatoes. I’ve written many times here on The Niche about gardening including tomatoes and have an occasional series “Scientist in the Garden.” After …

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The Niche 2019 stem cell pic contest winner is Shiri Gur-Cohen

November 9, 2021 / By / Leave a Comment
Shiri-Gur-Cohen

A couple weeks ago I launched our 2019 stem cell pic contest here on The Niche. It was a challenge for me choosing the winner from the top 9 finalists, whose images I made a composite of that is included toward the end of this post. The picture at the bottom of the composite seems …

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7-Year Glitch? Updates on my overly optimistic 2013 stem cell predictions for 2020

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
STEM-CELL-PREDICTIONS

Back in 2013, a half dozen years ago, I went out on a limb and made predictions for the stem cell field for 2020. These are different than my yearly predictions for the coming year (for instance, you can see my predictions made in 2018 for this year of 2019 here). As to my 2013 …

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Stem cell pioneer Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) leaves RIKEN

December 22, 2023 / By / 2 Comments
Masayo-Takahashi

In a surprise, Dr. Masayo Takahashi has announced that she has left RIKEN. Takahashi indicates she will be new President of a company called Vision Care, Inc. as part of the Kobe Eye Center. I’ve pasted a picture of Takahashi’s Tweet with translation more toward the bottom of the post. A big thanks to Piero …

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