What is a stem cell therapy? Does it have to include stem cells put into the body?
Would you include a therapy that uses differentiated cells made from stem cells? I generally do use the term in that broader way.
A similar question comes to mind: what is regenerative medicine? Should it include both cell therapies and gene editing under that umbrella term? The FDA seems to see it that way based on its RMAT designation.
On to our recommended reads.
Stem cell and regenerative reads
- Black and Asian cancer patients less likely to survive UK stem cell transplant than white peers, The Guardian.
- HSCT in MS challenging; patients need multidisciplinary care: Study, Multiple Sclerosis News Today.
- Ageing of stem cells reduces their capacity to form tumours, Nature News. The sub-header “The discovery that the ageing of lung stem cells drives iron insufficiency and reduces the capacity of the cells to form tumours has potential implications for the treatment of cancer and for regenerative medicine.” This might seem somewhat counterintuitive. Interesting work. Here’s the original research article in Nature: Ageing limits stemness and tumorigenesis by reprogramming iron homeostasis.
A different type of stem cell clinic lawsuit
This looks interesting: VetStem Agrees to Settle Stem Cell Patent Suits Against Clinics, Bloomberg. From the piece:
“VetStem Inc. settled a trio of patent infringement lawsuits with clinics affiliated with the Cell Surgical Network Corp. after the affiliates failed to convince federal judges in two states that they had medical practitioner immunity from patents covering their preferred stem cell therapies…VetStem and CSN, a network of cell therapy clinics, finalized the agreement and are waiting for CSN’s affiliates to approve the terms.”
As The Niche readers might recall, CSN recently lost an appeal filed by the FDA, which is seeking an injunction based on the agency’s determination that the fat cellular product in question was a drug requiring premarket approval. The original ruling in the case had gone for the network, which is now requesting that the full 9th Circuit Court examine the case. A three-judge panel from that court ruled in favor of the FDA.
Science gifts: CRISPR or stem cell book
Is there such a thing as a stem cell gift or CRISPR present? Maybe a nifty stem cell line from the repository ATCC for the lab? A CRISPR kit to make gene edits at home?
What are you asking for as a gift for the holidays? Probably not such science things.
You could, however, get a book related to some of this exciting science. I have three books out there that could be great gifts for anyone, including kids, interested in biology or medicine.
I really need to do an updated edition of my stem cell book. I got maybe one third of the way there a few years ago but have been too busy to finish up in part because I started another new book. Stay tuned.
Blast from the past
I think this was my first post on embryo models: Synthetic embryo or embryo model tech reported in Science: how big is this? It was just 7 years ago but feels somehow very old.
Hi, Paul!
Does that mean older stem cells would be more helpful?
Unfortunately probably not. As the tumor risk goes down, the potency of the stem cells probably also drops.