People often ask me about stem cells for autism or even their hope of an autism cure. I’ve explained that there is no new treatment for autism based on stem cells. There aren’t even mildly encouraging data. Note that it can be hurtful to the community to talk about an autism cure and disregarding neurodiversity. […]
Blastoids are lab-grown models of human embryos that represent a relatively new area of developmental biology research. The goal of today’s post is to give you everything you need to know about this topic. What’s in this article What are blastoids? | How are blastoids made? | Use in research | Blastoids challenges & Ethics
What are blastoids, roles in biomedical research, & ethical considerations Read More »
What if you could get 8-year grants to do whatever biomedical research you wanted? This sounds like a dream for many of us in the life sciences, but the first news item this week is all about such a potential new funding approach. The item especially caught my eye as I’m going to be doing
Weekly reads: hydra heads, iblastoids, new 8-year grants Read More »
A new word has been added to the lexicon of human stem cell research – blastoids, aka “blastocyst-like structures.” Unlike the familiar three-layered embryo that emerges during the third week of prenatal development, the earlier blastocyst resembles a fluid-filled soccer ball, with a smear of cells on the interior face destined to develop into the
New lab-grown blastoids are strikingly similar to human embryos Read More »
Looking for some stem cell good news? You’ll like today’s post. One mission of this blog The Niche is to promote rigorous science-based regenerative medicine, which can lead to investigating and writing about not-so-upbeat stuff. Risky clinics. People getting hurt. Patient lawsuits. Serious FDA, FTC, or state AG regulatory developments. Such actions can be good
Recent stem cell & regenerative medicine good news Read More »
Researchers have been making stem cell-based embryo models for years now and a few folks have taken to calling these “stembryos.” Other names like gastruloids and blastoids are sometimes used too. “Embryo models” might be the simplest and best name. The embryo model research has advanced relatively quickly from very basic, not very organized structures
Weekly reads: stembryos or human embryo models, new Macchiarini sentence Read More »
It’s that time of year again when I grade my previous year’s predictions for the stem cell & regenerative medicine space. Overall, I did better than a typical year. I give the 2022 predictions an A- overall. This exercise can be kind of fun but also humbling. For example, I tend to be too optimistic
Grading my 2022 regenerative medicine predictions Read More »
Stem cell biologist Jacob Hanna has a new startup called Renewal Bio. Its goal is to harvest cells or tissues from human embryo or fetus models for clinical use. I believe that their commercial ambitions have so far outstripped careful thought and discussion in the broader community of researchers. There are major risks here for
‘We don’t want to freak people out’: about that Jacob Hanna human embryo model startup Read More »
Is 2022 going to be any better than 2020 or 2021 when it comes to things in general or for biomedical science? Related to the pandemic? It’s too soon to say but if I had to guess right now I’d venture an optimistic view that overall it’s going to be somewhat better by the end
Weekly science reads: senescence, alt CRISPR, sickle cell update Read More »
The last few years in the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena have been complicated in many ways. Variables like surging stem cell clinics and COVID have made predictions harder. Even so, trying to make predictions is useful and it’s fun to go over past year’s predictions. You can see my scorecard on my 2021
16 predictions for stem cells & regenerative medicine in 2022 Read More »