We recently saw exciting news with the first CIRM-funded therapy garnering FDA approval. Before we jump into that and other news and new publications, a reminder that my lab is still crowdfunding to support our brain tumor research in these tough funding times. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to give more hope for kids […]
I love science pictures. Even when I was a kid, images of science really struck me. I’ve been doing The Niche now for 16 years and come across many unusual pictures during that time. It’s hard to imagine that I started this site in 2010. What a different world that was. In some ways, it
You’ve probably heard of the film Gattaca, but what is a Gattaca stack? The first thing that came to mind was a peptide stack (oh no!). That is where people take groups of unproven peptides together, usually by injection. Yeah, not a great idea. So, what’s the Gattaca stack? As someone following the area of
Connections between the thymus and aging are growing. Let’s start with that interesting area of research. The thymus and aging In Histology class at the med school here we teach that the thymus just naturally involutes. It mostly turns to adipose tissue with age, which is a depressing thought. A new paper suggests that there
Weekly reads: the thymus and aging, Aspen upbeat 1 year data, paired organoids Read More »
The FDA is reporting that someone in the US died after use of a regenerative medicine product imported from Japan called Laennec. Here’s the FDA report on the death related to Laennec. The agency advisory is titled: Patient and Consumer Warning about Potential Serious Risks of Harm following Use of Unapproved Products from Human Cells
Vinay Prasad, the outgoing CBER Director (right), with Commissioner Marty Makary, at a cell and gene therapy roundtable last year. Vinay Prasad is leaving the FDA again in a few weeks. As CBER Director, Prasad was all over the place on how he handled oversight of biologics. He and Commissioner Marty Makary promised flexibility from
RFK Jr. might be the biggest peptides fan of all. Or it could be the compounding pharmacy industry or Joe Rogan. For a few years, compounders were profiting from marketing the most popular of these unproven peptide drugs (what I call “pop peptides”). The FDA put a halt to that in 2023. The agency at
There have been more revelations about connections between George Church & Epstein in the past few weeks from the new Epstein files document drop. Church & Epstein I wrote earlier about how Jeffrey Epstein interacted with a team at Harvard/MGH. This included George Church and his colleague at the time Joe Thakuria. There were discussions
More on Church & Epstein, how simple “no” could have been, making amends? Read More »
Before we dive into the weekly reads, I wanted to explain something new on The Niche and ask for your support of our brain tumor research. Brain tumor research funding As many of you know, some firsthand, funding is extremely difficult to get these days. This is particularly true for NIH funding. Some NIH institutes
A Lancet paper is sparking excitement about an investigational cell therapy for spina bifida. Here’s the study: Feasibility and safety of cellular therapy for in-utero repair of myelomeningocele (CuRe Trial): a first-in-human, phase 1, single-arm study. Myelomeningocele is the most severe manifestation of spina bifida The work was led by my UC Davis colleagues Diana Farmer and Aijun Wang. The trial is
Early encouraging UC Davis trial data on cell therapy for spina bifida Read More »