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
I’ve often wondered why there hasn’t been more research on macrophage therapy. Macrophages are some of the coolest cells in the body. They are capable of not just eating other cells (hence their name), but also numerous other functions. Before we dive into that, below is the latest stem cell video from my collaboration with
Weekly reads: macrophage therapy, Putin longevity push, human embryo base editing Read More »
One of the questions I get asked most often about pop peptides is why they are so popular. What puts the “pop” in pop peptides? Peptide mania After all, these peptides like Ipamorelin, BPC-157, and so on don’t have clinical trial data to support the uses for which they are being marketed. That makes them
The FDA & compounding pharmacy telehealth connections on pop peptides Read More »
If you take a statin to improve your lipid profile, someday could you undergo LDL gene editing instead? Might that day be sooner than we think? A new paper has generated great interest in this topic including in the media. LDL gene editing For example, we have: One-and-Done Heart Disease Prevention? Scientists Show It May
I’ve been following Altos Labs since its inception. The institution has intriguing, ambitious goals. For that reason, it’s been interesting that in terms of news on Altos, things have been relatively quiet for the last 4+ years. Some big changes have happened recently though. Altos Labs is high on talent, but nicely low-key on PR