Can hearts repair themselves via their own stem cells? Science evolves Sometimes what we scientists all know to be true turns out later on to be wrong and there are clear instances of this in the stem cell field. For example for decades the dogma was that the adult mammalian brain did not have stem cells, but now most researchers believe that the adult brain does have stem cells, although for humans this is still being debated. What we perceive as factual can change over time. Yamanaka …Read More
heart disease
What’s been going on in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field over the past week and what are some worthwhile things to read? Today’s post has recommended recent reads from the scientific literature and the media. I’ve also got our weekly stem cell/regenerative medicine quiz question and the answer to last week’s. You can check out last week’s recommended reads here, which has last week’s quiz question. Toward the bottom of the post there’s also a “blast from the past” link to a piece …Read More
What’s on your weekend reads list including stem cell papers? In addition to hard-core research papers, I find some bigger picture publications to be helpful too. Then there are just fun items. Every so often I do a post about things that I’m hoping to find time to read over the weekend or that I’ve recently read. Today’s post is one of those items and here are some interesting science reads related in particular to stem cells, cancer, and CRISPR. Stem cell research and …Read More
Over time I seem to collect more upbeat stories about stem cells and regenerative medicine as well as cool publications so today’s “good news” post is a collection of these kinds of things plus one example of huge science hype. Here’s a list of past such upbeat posts. The preclinical good news in rats from my graduate alma mater UCSD, ‘New Injection Technique May Boost Spinal Cord Injury Repair Efforts‘ via stem cells. Here’s the actual Stem Cells Translational Medicine pub.from a team led …Read More
The exciting and sometimes downright crazy giant stem cell ecosystem of legit research and unproven stem cell clinics could use a dose of good news now and then. In today post, I highlight some upbeat news and some interesting recent pubs. Enjoy! From a team led by Hina Chaudhry, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, a new PNAS pub, “Multipotent fetal-derived Cdx2 cells from placenta regenerate the heart.” Congrats to first author Sangeetha Vadakke-MadathilThis is a …Read More
Australian stem cell biotech Mesoblast announced that it has received regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation from the U.S. FDA. This is very good news for the company and an encouraging development for the field. Interestingly, last month the FDA clarified that there is expanded RMAT designation that can include gene therapies too. At the Meeting on the Mesa in October, an FDA official reportedly presented data indicating that about 1/3 applications for RMATs were granted (see image below from Twitter). This recently announced RMAT …Read More
Can stem cells mend a broken heart via cardiac regenerative medicine? The idea of the use of stem cells and regenerative medicine strategies for heart disease has taken us on a roller coaster ride over the years. There are many controversial questions still such as whether the adult heart has meaningful populations of endogenous stem cells. Can administration of stem cells help a damaged heart? Where do things stand today? As Deepak Srivastava, cardiac stem cell expert, told in me for a past blog post …Read More
Can hearts repair themselves via stem cell mechanisms including possibly their own stem cells? It’s a hot topic question at the center of a big debate in the stem cell field. My inclination at present is that the answer is most likely “no” at this point, but that could change and it’s important to keep an open mind. Sometimes what we scientists all know to be true turns out later on to be wrong and there are good examples of this in the stem …Read More