Organoids and especially brain organoids, which are made from pluripotent stem cells, are one of the most interesting developmental biology technologies of the last half a dozen or so years. Still some folks can’t help but get carried away when thinking about brain organoids it seems. A new Science paper from a team led by …
Dissecting that Neanderthal brain organoids Science pub Read More »
There has been quite a lot of pubs on research on pluripotent stem cells published lately. These include some more surprising findings such as a potential role for pluripotency-related programming in neural crest development. Here the week’s recommended reads. Neural Crest research: ties to factors involved in pluripotent stem cells Science, Reactivation of the pluripotency …
Recommended reads: pluripotent stem cells, neural crest, cancer, more Read More »
At times there’s been seriously bad journalism covering COVID-19 itself including implications of various things being a COVID cure. Of course, media coverage of stem cell research itself sometimes ends up being a train-wreck of hype too. More recently we’ve seen irresponsible journalism also around the specific idea of stem cells for COVID-19, but sometimes …
Fact-check: F grade for irresponsible stem cell COVID-19 cure piece Read More »
Here are my recommended weekly reads for The Niche readership for early February 2021 including COVID-19 and stem cell lawsuit updates, papers, and more. How many papers do you end up reading each week or month these days? More or less than before the pandemic? COVID-19 updates New diabetes cases linked to covid-19, WaPo ICYMI …
The Niche reads: COVID, new INDs, clinic suits, papers Read More »
A grand jury indicted Missouri state representative and assistant physician Patricia Derges for allegedly selling and injecting patients with fake stem cells. The injection was reportedly just of amniotic fluid, but Derges allegedly claimed it was a stem cell treatment. NBC News was one of several media outlets that broke the story here after the …
Lawmaker indicted for selling fake stem cells for COVID & more Read More »
How much does platelet rich plasma or PRP injection cost? We might start by first talking about how to define PRP. PRP is an extract from blood enriched for platelet growth factors. There are many ways of making PRP and products are very heterogeneous. Some preps may contain actual platelets or fragments of platelets. These …
How much does platelet rich plasma or PRP injection cost? Is it a good option? Read More »
During the week as I’m doing other stuff I keep my eyes open for interesting things to read, including over the weekend about stem cell research, COVID, CRISPR, and more for The Niche weekly recommended reads. This week a lot was going as we updated The Niche site to our new theme and format. I …
Recommended reads: jobs, FDA letter, & The Niche new look Read More »
Sometimes it seems like a theme spontaneously emerges in pubs that I want to read for a given week like the set of single-cell analysis papers but there are diverse, other items including a striking day-night brain stem cell cycle paper and an interesting piece on identical twins who got COVID. What are you reading …
Recommended reads: Single-cell work, COVID twin study, more Read More »
When my wife and I were expecting our first daughter way back in the nineties, we received a paper pamphlet about cord blood banking. Back then, I was a graduate student at UC San Diego School of Medicine working toward my Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology and my wife was in medical school at the time …
Fact-checking, pros and cons of cord blood banking Read More »
I’m playing catch-up on some reading given how busy I’ve been and this includes a groundbreaking NEJM pub on CRISPR for Sickle Cell and Thalassemia. CRISPR for Sickle Cell From December, here’s the key paper in the NEJM: CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and β-Thalassemia. There’s a lot to like about this clinical …
Recommended reads: CRISPR for Sickle Cell, Parkinson’s, & more Read More »