Ever heard of woolly mice? I hadn’t either until recently. The story begins with de-extinction research. De-extinction can be both cool and arguably a colossal waste of research dollars. The specific effort to de-extinct woolly mammoths fits that dual classification. Woolly mice on the road back to mammoths? Let’s dig into this with some news: […]
Sharks are experts at growing new teeth from stem cells. What if we humans could grow new teeth from stem cells too? It seems like a stretch. Compared to sharks, on tooth regrowth we are biological amateurs. While humans and some other animals like dogs have only two sets of teeth in our whole lives,
Reasons to smile at sharks? Growing new teeth from stem cells Read More »
I recently looked at the organizational chart at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research or CBER. Why? I have been anticipating some possible big changes there with the new administration. After all, with HHS Secretary RFK Jr. having previously claimed that the FDA was suppressing various unproven things including at least two kinds
Weekly reads: CBER changes, Parkinson’s, 2-dad mice, NIH woes continue Read More »
There is growing interest in a possible new reproductive method based on something called in vitro gametogenesis or IVG. Today’s post explains IVG including its potential pros and cons. I also discuss why its possible combination with gene editing is so potentially fraught, which is a big potential con. Let’s start with an explanation of this
In all the time I’ve been a scientist I never worried about American science until the last month. Even during the first Trump administration, while there were challenges, I felt like things would generally be okay. Research continued. One of my daughters and I went to the Science March in 2017 in Sacramento. We bumped
Weekly reads: blowtorch to American science, stem cells for teeth & stroke Read More »
The marketing of what are loosely referred to as “regenerative peptides” including BPC-157 makes many health claims. Yet I can’t see that any have been conclusively proven to work in people. Even so, RFK Jr. claimed that the FDA was suppressing useful peptides. He mentioned this along with supposed suppression of “stem cells”. So maybe
RFK Jr. & claimed regenerative peptides like BPC-157 Read More »
It’s been an exhausting week for anyone who cares about the NIH and biomedical research, but in today’s weekly reads I want to talk about another kind of fatigue: stem cell exhaustion. Please subscribe to The Niche Before we get into that, I’d like to ask a favor: please subscribe to this site, The Niche.
Weekly reads: stem cell exhaustion, Lineage Cell trial, Iowa AG wins vs. clinics Read More »
There were many reasons for the U.S. Senate not to confirm RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary. Reasons that transcended politics. Nonetheless, Senate Republicans confirmed him today for that post. Some of them had voiced serious concerns before including one physician Senator, Dr. Bill Cassidy, but they all voted for Kennedy anyway. All except Mitch McConnell,
Initial reactions to RFK Jr. being HHS Secretary Read More »
I first learned about woolly dogs when researching woolly mammoth de-extinction. It turns out that there are or were many woolly creatures besides sheep. If you have to de-extinct something, I say let’s try to bring back the woolly dog and forget the mammoths. More on that in a minute. What are woolly dogs? Woolly
What were woolly dogs and should they be de-extincted over mammoths? Read More »
When I think of so-called aging supplements, visions of snake oil dance in my head. Possible benefits of supplements more generally have mostly not held up to long-term research. Supplements have risks too and so do purported longevity supplements. These pills claiming to fight aging are more in the realm of stem cell supplements that
Weekly reads: Altos Labs aging supplements pub, destructive NIH cuts, FDA warning, HSCs Read More »