I’ve been teaching Histology here at UC Davis School of Medicine for more than 12 years and I lecture on skin among other topics so I’ve made more than one labeled diagram of the skin over the years. I’ve included some in this post. First, below you can see a zoomed0out view of fingertip with […]
Labeled diagram of the skin & skin stem cells in research Read More »
This was a busy week for me working on a grant due Friday and a bunch of other stuff including happily analyzing a bunch of data, but there were tons of interesting papers recently including on pluripotency. California stem cell clinic court case on in the background Along the way this week I was occasionally
Weekly reads: court case, cancer stem cells, skin, pluripotency, & more Read More »
New FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has brought on Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg (or Høeg) as a special assistant. Hoeg has had some controversial views on COVID. She has seemed skeptical of certain elements of vaccination, masking, and school closing. What struck me is that she also has offered unproven cell therapies at a clinic here
New Makary FDA aide Dr. Tracy Hoeg has offered unproven stem cells Read More »
How bad could things get with RFK Jr. changing the FDA’s approach to unproven stem cells? I’ve been asking myself this for months since Kennedy’s post that mentioned stem cells on X. New developments suggest things will get much worse. Up until about a week or two ago, my feeling has been that things could
“Very scary”: Per Marks, RFK Jr. aiming for weaker regs on unproven stem cells Read More »
The Japanese stem cell and regenerative medicine oversight system is different than here in the U.S. and in Europe. Japan has had a more permissive approach to overseeing regenerative medicine. While most of the attention has focused on fairly legitimate regenerative biotechs and other sponsors in Japan, there are unproven stem cell clinics there. These
Japanese stem cell clinic oversight: the case of MSC clinic Seijikai Fukuoka Read More »
There is growing interest in a possible new reproductive method based on something called in vitro gametogenesis or IVG. Today’s post explains IVG including its potential pros and cons. I also discuss why its possible combination with gene editing is so potentially fraught, which is a big potential con. Let’s start with an explanation of this
It’s been an exhausting week for anyone who cares about the NIH and biomedical research, but in today’s weekly reads I want to talk about another kind of fatigue: stem cell exhaustion. Please subscribe to The Niche Before we get into that, I’d like to ask a favor: please subscribe to this site, The Niche.
Weekly reads: stem cell exhaustion, Lineage Cell trial, Iowa AG wins vs. clinics Read More »
Biologist and ancient DNA expert Beth Shapiro is becoming more well known for doing de-extinction research. Yet Shapiro used to be a de-extinction skeptic. Ten years ago she wrote “How to Clone a Mammoth.” In the book she mentioned serious challenges related to de-extinction. Now she is the CSO for a firm trying to make
Weekly reads: Beth Shapiro & de-extinction, mice with two dads, stem cell patches Read More »
One of the most common questions I get from patients is about stem cell therapy for knees. Can it help knee arthritis and pain? Today’s post is a fact-check of where things stand today in 2025 on stem cells for knee issues. You can watch a video overview of this stem cell therapy for knees
Stem cell therapy for knees 2025: fact-check, costs, risks Read More »
Intermittent fasting must be good for stem cells, right? It’s not so clear. Like many things in biology, intermittent fasting can have seemingly opposite effects. Before we get into that, the news of the week is that the FDA approved Mesoblast’s Ryoncil MSC drug for some cases of pediatric GvHD. This has sparked lively discussion.
Weekly reads: intermittent fasting and stem cells, vet warning, blastemas Read More »