Can hearts repair themselves via stem cell mechanisms including possibly their own stem cells? It’s a hot topic question at the center of a big debate in the stem cell field. My inclination at present is that the answer is most likely “no” at this point, but that could change and it’s important to keep …
The Mayo Clinic does some great research on stem cells and regenerative medicine. However, at times I’ve felt that a few Mayo researchers are overexuberant. This mainly relates to certain not-yet-proven stem cell and related offerings. Fitting with that perception, the Mayo website also has some inaccurate stem cell content that leans toward overstating things. …
Key Mayo Clinic stem cell webpage is overexuberant & outdated Read More »
Last week one of the most popular stories was about a preprint from a mammoth de-extinction research group led by George Church having made elephant stem cells. I finally got a chance to look carefully at their preprint. Elephant stem cells preprint and mammoth de-extinction The elephant stem cells preprint has solid data. It looks like …
Weekly reads: elephant stem cells, RIP Connie Eaves, AI cell biology Read More »
One of the first regenerative medicine talks I ever saw was on stem cells for heart disease. I was still a trainee at the time. The professor, whom I won’t name, presented data from an early phase trial reporting that direct injections of some kind of cells right into the heart improved outcomes. Stem cells …
Put on a happy face? Perspectives on Mayo Clinic stem cells for heart disease Ph3 pub Read More »
It’s mostly been a week of good and encouraging news in the regenerative medicine space including with gene therapies maybe with the exception of some eye drops warning (more below). There’s realistic hope for an approved sickle cell disease soon. I also see some long-term positive news on hearing loss research. Hematopoietic stem cell transplant …
Weekly reads: reprogramming hearing loss, heart disease, eye drops, sickle cell Read More »
Are there endogenous adult heart stem cells that are useful in cardiac disease or can stem cell infusions help ailing hearts? As to the first question, the adult heart does not appear to have meaningful numbers of true stem cells. Further, testing the idea of infusions of stem cells for heart disease has so far been giving …
Heart stem cells trial mostly disappoints but is oversold Read More »
It’s been mostly a downbeat week on the stem cell news front including a deep revisit by Reuters to the Piero Anversa case that has new revelations. It’s ugly stuff involving other folks too. We’ll start on the iPS cell front, where a trial participant had a teratoma. I’ve had a long-standing interest in the …
How much promise is there today for stem cell therapy for heart disease? Where do things stand with the clinical research? Patients regularly ask me these kinds of questions. The goal of today’s post is to update you on where things stand. What’s in this post Stem Cell Therapy | Clinical Trials | Delivery of …
Stem cell therapy for heart disease: what you need to know Read More »
What exactly is a mesenchymal cell and what does the acronym MSC stand for these days? I took a stab recently at discussing mesenchymal cells and the MSC acronym so check that out. There is a great need for standards on MSCs and the products out there being marketed as MSCs are probably in reality …
Weekly reads: MSC, p53, EuroGCT, fake fish, K27M CAR-T Read More »
This was an unusual week in that three papers in a sense collided together related to embryo production and growth, raising new research possibilities but also serious ethical questions. New research: what is an embryo & what is not? The first two Nature papers reported generating the most realistic models of human embryos from scratch …
Weekly reads: embryo pubs stir things up, organoids crying, & more Read More »