Why am I interested in MYC phosphorylation? What is MYC? Long-time readers of The Niche probably remember that the MYC family is one of my primary interests. These proteins are essential for normal development (and stem cell function) as well as contributing to the formation of many tumors when overexpressed or mutated. MYC was also […]
So-called wellness peptides are even more in the spotlight this week as the pharmacy compounding advisory committee or PCAC launches a series of meetings to evaluate restoration of compounding of these unproven peptide drugs. This committee is supposed to take FDA staff guidance into consideration as it decides what to recommend to the agency. Typically
Potentially highly-conflicted PCAC meets this week on pop peptides, but no waivers Read More »
When immunology researchers talk about “T cell stem cells” (or stem T cells or T memory stem cells), are they talking more generally about hematopoietic stem cells? No, because those have much broader potential. The most primitive stem cell for T cells can make all the various kinds of mature T cells. It seems like
There has been some discussion that the next-generation research on human stem cell-based embryo models (SCBEM) could someday warrant a Nobel Prize for some of those involved. At this point, however, I believe that’s unlikely. How do we evaluate the worth of and reward innovative biomedical research? Let’s start by talking a bit about Nobel
Readers of The Niche will recall that I’ve been skeptical of the efforts of the de-extinction firm Colossal Bio. For instance, I don’t believe they de-extincted dire wolves. They did make woolly mice, maybe their fluffiest (in a real sense) achievement. The point of that apparently was to be on the road to de-extincting woolly
Will using AI in biology be revolutionary? If you’re a scientist, how often do you use Chat GPT or similar AI for your biomedical research? For writing? Are you more annoyed or enthralled with how AI might impact biology and the daily work of biologists? In the middle? Whatever your answers, Anthropic is hoping that
Recently, I predicted that RFK Jr. may stack the key pharmacy compounding committee, called PCAC, with fans of unproven peptides. Kennedy wants the unproven “pop peptides”, as I call them, to be unleashed. If the PCAC advises allowing pop peptide compounding, it gives Kennedy more leverage to overrule FDA scientists. You might recall there are
The last eighteen months have been an unprecedented time of unpredictability for the FDA, but moving forward we’re likely going to see an emerging consistency: a higher amount of FDA flexibility on rare diseases. It’s already begun and is likely to accelerate with Prasad and Makary gone. How is this manifesting? FDA flexes flexibility I
Are stem cells for autism promising? The answer so far is a clear “no”. Even a Duke team that was for a time very upbeat about the potential of umbilical cord cell therapy for autism seems to have lost that enthusiasm. For example, they stopped their EAP of cord cells for autism. I also don’t
I’ve been following the Huntington’s disease space carefully for about 15 years. I always hoped that some kind of promising gene therapy might emerge. Stem cell therapies or combination cell-gene therapies could have promise for Huntington’s too. Over the years, I got to know Judy Roberson, a wonderful HD patient advocate. I’m going to start