Today’s post is the latest edition of my weekly recommended reads, which this week include Fate Therapeutics, COVID-19 updates, AAMC, and more including some great pubs such as one on 2 modes of PRC2 function. Also check out this handy resource: Helpful 2020 List of Stem Cell Journals and this blast from the past post of 10 …
Recommended reads: COVID-19 updates, FDA stem cell nod, PRC2, more Read More »
The biotech Mesoblast is starting an expanded access study of its stem cell product for kids with a severe offshoot of COVID-19. The cellular drug in this case is remestemcel-L (more below). While most children fare better than adults in dealing with COVID-19, the rare subset of kids with COVID-19 for this study have more severe …
I’ve been blogging about stem cells now for about 8 years and the recent level of hype about and fluffy media coverage of Celularity, the biotech spun out of Celgene, ranks right up here with the most extreme past cases I’ve seen. What is Celularity and who is its leadership? It’s a new biotech focused …
Just one word placentas: Can Celularity live up to hype? Read More »
Stem cells for flu? For me, that idea is new. Some months back there was buzz about the stem cell biotech Longeveron related to its report on early trial data on testing infusions of mesenchymal stem cells for frailty in the aged. Frailty that pops up in some aging folks can manifest in a variety …
Stem cells for the flu? Pondering PR email, frailty data from Longeveron Read More »
When I think of the promise of stem cells for diabetes, the privately held California stem cell firm ViaCyte is the first biotech that comes to mind now. It has promising stem cell clinical trial work building. Today’s post is a new interview with the company’s CEO Paul Laikind. For past posts on ViaCyte see here, which …
ViaCyte Interview on Diabetes Stem Cell Trials & Cool Role of Gore-Tex Tech Read More »
It’s a difficult, but very important road to conclusively prove that an investigational stem cell therapy is both safe and effective in order to get final approval FDA or equivalents in other countries. For this reason, it is beneficial to highlight even small, but positive steps forward including encouraging pre-clinical data. Today I’m doing a …
Stem cell therapy review of good news: UC Davis, Asterias, Cynata, Mesoblast, ViaCyte Read More »
My recent post on the push for National Right-To-Try (RTT) including a detailed comment from ISSCR stirred some animated feedback. In the spirit of encouraging diverse discussion, here I am posting a striking comment I received from a stem cell industry insider regarding that post on RTT as it relates to stem cells and s/he was especially …
Blunt comment from stem cell industry insider in defense of RTT & Texas Law Read More »
New FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has in the past touched on stem cells and regenerative medicine therapies in speeches or written comments prior to starting his tenure at the agency. Now that he is Commissioner, he is poised to have direct impact on our field rather quickly and potentially with major changes in …
Reading the tea leaves as new FDA commish Gottlieb blogs on regenerative medicine Read More »
How is the stem cell and regenerative medicine biotech sector doing these days and does recent news about specific biotechs such as Capricor suggest issues for the sector more broadly? Capricor had bad news earlier this year related to its stem cells for heart disease program and things just took a turn for the worse …
Shot to the heart: J&J punts on Capricor & its cardiac stem cell program Read More »
There has been a lot of excitement this week about a press release from stem cell biotech Athersys that reported that treatment of stroke patients with its product MultiStem was associated with a statistically significant improvement at 1-year. This sounds encouraging and the stock has spiked up as a result. However, there are some naysayers …
About that Athersys stem cell stroke clinic trial PR… Read More »