Mostly discouraging trial of MSC-NPs or purported neural cells from MSCs for MS

MSCs for MS, MSC-NPs

The idea of mesenchymal cells or MSCs for MS has been around for a long time. However, there haven’t been that many strong clinical trials testing it. There’s a new paper out that reports one of the stronger MSC-related trials for MS in terms of design. In this case, they didn’t use just MSCs but […]

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Recommended reads: FDA warning on stem cells for pets, chromatin, aging & HSCs

Safari Stem Cell, stem cells for pets

When I first saw the new FDA warning on stem cells for pets and the logo for the company that received it, I was surprised in a few ways. I don’t recall ever seeing such a letter and the logo is something else. We’ll get into all of that in a moment, but first, since

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Concerns after interview with Kyle Cetrulo of Perinatal Stem Cell Society

Perinatal Stem Cell Society email material.

I recently interviewed Kyle Cetrulo of the Perinatal Stem Cell Society. This organization seeks to catalyze big changes in stem cell use and clinical trials in the U.S. In the interview, we touched on many topics including FDA oversight of the cell therapy space. Some of this discussion was in reaction to the new Utah

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Weekly reads: diabetes, GvHD, Novo Nordisk & regenerative medicine, HDACs

mesenchymal cells

Do many in the regenerative medicine field have favorite types of stem cells? Some seem to think there’s a tension between those working on pluripotent stem cells like iPS cells and those working with MSCs. I don’t see it that way, though. Whatever stem cells work best for a particular condition should be used and,

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Recommend reads: FDA SVF warning, big Aspen grant, CSI finale invokes stem cells

SVF

One of the most contentious areas in the regenerative medicine arena is whether a fat tissue product called stromal vascular fraction or SVF is a drug. The FDA says SVF, even in autologous form, is a drug. It is seeking an injunction against a California-based network of SVF clinics but lost the initial case. That

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Google AI overviews on stem cells are a bust so far & endanger public health

stem cells for knees

I’ve been wondering how the new Google AI overviews feature on its search platform would turn out for various stem cell searches. Frankly, I had a bad feeling that Google was going to blow this. Unfortunately, it seems even worse than I anticipated. Let’s go through three examples and talk about why this is so

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Recommended reads: CAR-T for Lupus, CRISPR vision, journal closures

CAR-T for Lupus

Can researchers use CAR-T for lupus? It’s always exciting when one’s home institution has an interesting new therapy in development.  Here at UC Davis Health, there has been an increasing stream of such encouraging trials in the pipeline. I’ve written before about the promising trial of stem cells for spina bifida. Now there’s news related

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Q&A with Kyle Cetrulo of The Perinatal Stem Cell Society on the FDA, state laws, & more

Kyle Cetrulo, Perinatal Stem Cell Society

I was interested to see that an organization called The Perinatal Stem Cell Society seems to have been upbeat about the new Utah stem cell law. That law sets up a likely conflict with the FDA and federal law over stem cells. In a nutshell, Utah now says you can sell non-FDA-approved stem cells in

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Recommended reads: 3 infected in Mexico, stem cell hype, hearing restoration

muscle stem cell hype

Stem cell hype is a big problem these days. It’s been going on for decades. Even some generally good citizens of the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena engage in it at times. Maybe a few of them don’t even realize what they are doing. I think a few journalists occasionally fall into the hype

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Is Liz Parrish the world’s most genetically modified person? Why it might not be such a good thing

Liz Parrish, BioViva

Some recent claims had me wondering whether Liz Parrish is the world’s most genetically modified person. She and her firm BioViva are making that claim. It’s an important question but maybe not for the reason many of us first might think. This is not really about one person. Instead, this is a weighty question because

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