Weekly reads: elephant stem cells, RIP Connie Eaves, AI cell biology

elephant stem cells

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 »

US clinics widely selling unproven RNA therapy including for cancer from Greek firm RGCC

SOT, supportive oligonucleotide therapy

A few dozen clinics in the US sell an unproven RNA therapy called supportive oligonucleotide therapy or SOT. The product comes from a Greek firm RGCC or Research Genetic Cancer Center, which also pre-tests patients’ gene expression to design the RNA product. Clinics marketing SOT in the US say it is intended to act by …

US clinics widely selling unproven RNA therapy including for cancer from Greek firm RGCC Read More »

Weekly reads: anti-aging tricks & treats, stealthy stem cells, Mammoth de-extinction milestone

Pura Munoz-Canoves

Anti-aging might already be the big regenerative medicine story of 2024 and it’s only early March. Anti-aging hype going to the dogs? One of my 20 stem cell and regenerative medicine predictions for 2024 was that longevity would continue to make big news including in some not-so-great ways. In just over two months there has …

Weekly reads: anti-aging tricks & treats, stealthy stem cells, Mammoth de-extinction milestone Read More »

Utah set to legalize non-FDA approved placental cell drug therapies likely sparking conflict

Utah Rep. Katy Hall

Utah appears ready to pass a new stem cell law that would explicitly allow clinical use of non-FDA-approved placental cell drug therapies in the state. Bill 199 seems likely to set up a conflict with the FDA that may land in court. The key part of the bill says: “A health care provider whose scope …

Utah set to legalize non-FDA approved placental cell drug therapies likely sparking conflict Read More »

Weekly reads: Vertex, stem cells for MS, Athersys, 900-day paper review at Nature

“While still early, these results support the continued progression of our VX-880 clinical studies, as well as future studies using our encapsulated islet cells, which hold the potential to be used without the need for immunosuppression,” said Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief of cell and genetic therapies at Vertex.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a lot going for it right now on the cell therapy front. For instance, they have the strongest type 1 diabetes cell therapy pipeline after some recent acquisitions. Still it’s not a simple matter to succeed in the cell therapy space even with one therapy for one targeted disease. Trials are tough …

Weekly reads: Vertex, stem cells for MS, Athersys, 900-day paper review at Nature Read More »

I found something Elon Musk & I agree on: pushing back on anti-aging bluster

Elon Musk

Would you guess that Elon Musk might be into using biotechnology in a high-profile way to try to live far longer than usual, say to age 150? That would have been my assumption. There are countless things about Elon Musk that I really don’t like. I also don’t see many issues on which we are …

I found something Elon Musk & I agree on: pushing back on anti-aging bluster Read More »

Weekly reads: AL embryos ruling, blasting cancer, marrow organoids, beef inside rice plants

Multipotent & totipotent vs pluripotent stem cells, very early human embryos totipotent stem cells

Are small clusters of cells that make up 5-day-old human embryos equivalent to children? Biologically and in terms of just common sense, the answer is “no.” These tiny spheres have around 100 cells and no organs. Actual people have many trillions of cells, brains, and other organs. Alabama law on embryos may block IVF About …

Weekly reads: AL embryos ruling, blasting cancer, marrow organoids, beef inside rice plants Read More »

The zoo that is stem cells on Reddit

crazy carnival, stem cells on Reddit

Can you learn important things about stem cells on Reddit? Yes, you can, but it’s a wild experience at times. Researchers may often think about stem cells through the lens of traditional routes of communication like academic journals, but laypeople turn elsewhere to learn about regenerative medicine. This includes digging into stem cells on Reddit. …

The zoo that is stem cells on Reddit Read More »

Weekly reads: brain aging, perinatal stem cell clinics, $1M lab meat fine bill

brain aging

What happens during brain aging and how can we tell if dementia is coming? Are there particular early hallmarks? There are an increasing number of medical tests for predicting or detecting dementia. Alzheimer’s disease can often be detected early. But what do patients or their doctors do with such information? Until recently there weren’t any …

Weekly reads: brain aging, perinatal stem cell clinics, $1M lab meat fine bill Read More »

Weekly reads: cool olfactory tuft cells, T-cell therapy, NK cells

Olfactory epithelium, Olfactory histology

There’s a fascinating type of olfactory cell. These so-called tuft cells have unusual characteristics, especially for nose cells. I had never heard of them before until reading a new article. The inside of the nose may not seem like a very attractive place but there are cool “nose stem cells” in there.  More broadly, there …

Weekly reads: cool olfactory tuft cells, T-cell therapy, NK cells Read More »