Ready for some stem cell good news? It can be difficult at times in a cutting edge field like stem cells in terms of keeping upbeat about hopes of rapid translation to help patients with real, proven therapies. It takes a long time, money, dedication, and even a bit of luck for the researchers and biotech companies out there. It’s a challenging path with many possible roadblocks and landmines. For instance, I recently wrote about how many stem cell stocks are not doing well. I also have to admit at being a bit discouraged at the events related to the first IPSC clinical study recently going into a hold pattern.
At the same time there continues to be much good news as well and below I’ve highlighted some of the top recent encouraging stories out there. What other good news is out there in the stem cell world?
Stem cells Transdifferentiation from the top. I love direct reprogramming and there’s some cool new data from multiple groups.
NYSCF Publishes Details on Automated Global Stem Cell Array Production Process. Very cool. A top stem cell scientist Susan Solomon, who was part of the team, describes it as “Affymetrix for stem cells”. Great analogy. IPSC on a chip. Check out the paper here and Figure 4b above.
Sanofi links with Evotec to tap stem cells for diabetes care. Big pharma interest in stem cells.
Embryonic cell power increased. Is induced totipotency possible?
Liver Stem Cells‘ Source Discovered By Scientists. Liver disease is a huge and growing problem.
Grant awarded for HIV clinical trial using stem cells. This could make a transformative difference for HIV patients. Way to go UC Davis researchers.
Any other stem cell good news that I missed?
Well, there is the demonstration of neuronal direct conversion of human fibroblasts by small molecules induction, published in the latest Cell Stem Cell issue.