multiple sclerosis

Weekly reads: stem cells for MS, good news x2, extending dog years, Neuralink updates

December 2, 2023 / By / 2 Comments
stem cells for MS

For about as long as I’ve been writing The Niche, people have been asking about stem cells for MS. There’s a huge need for new therapies. While a chemo-based approach with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) looks to work for certain cases of multiple sclerosis (although not yet approved in the US), other cell …

Weekly reads: stem cells for MS, good news x2, extending dog years, Neuralink updates Read More »

Weekly reads: stem cells for MS, Kimera Labs IND, FDA lawsuit

September 30, 2023 / By / 10 Comments
Symptoms_of_multiple_sclerosis

There has been a steady stream of encouraging data on stem cells for MS. Particularly for certain kinds of MS. A new study adds to this upbeat direction. Good news on stem cells for MS Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in Sweden: an observational cohort study, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, …

Weekly reads: stem cells for MS, Kimera Labs IND, FDA lawsuit Read More »

Stem cells for MS & other weekly reads: CRISPR, COVID & a bat cave, Huntington’s

March 5, 2022 / By / 1 Comment
Symptoms_of_multiple_sclerosis.svg_

About 1 million people are living with multiple sclerosis in the U.S. alone with millions of other cases around the world so a huge effort has gone into trying to find new approaches to the disease including stem cells for MS. We’ll start our weekly recommended reads by talking about a new paper on MS …

Stem cells for MS & other weekly reads: CRISPR, COVID & a bat cave, Huntington’s Read More »

Stronger link between EBV and MS brings concrete clinical hope

February 8, 2022 / By / 4 Comments
Axial MRI scans of a person with multiple sclerosis

I’ve ended up learning a lot about multiple sclerosis (MS) while writing The Niche for the past twelve plus years, but I’ve never seen anything like the new research linking EBV and MS. EBV stands for Epstein Barr Virus. The reason I’ve learned much more about MS while writing here is that there has been …

Stronger link between EBV and MS brings concrete clinical hope Read More »

Patient Q&A#2: Are autoimmune or stem cell transplant patients at higher risk from COVID-19?

February 27, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
COVID-19

I’m continuing my stem cell patient Q&A series and today’s Q&A#2 post is focused on whether autoimmune patients generally or specifically those who have received chemo and hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) are at higher risk from COVID-19? Multiple patients have asked me this. It’s a great question and obviously urgent right now during the …

Patient Q&A#2: Are autoimmune or stem cell transplant patients at higher risk from COVID-19? Read More »

Northwestern abruptly ending Burt HSCT autoimmune trials

February 1, 2021 / By / 49 Comments
Selma-Blair-HSCT

“HSCT Chicago Clinic Closing!” is the startling header in all caps on a patient-run Facebook page about a stem cell therapy clinical trial program at Northwestern University. What’s going on? Unfortunately, the promising field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases seems to have suffered an unexpected setback …

Northwestern abruptly ending Burt HSCT autoimmune trials Read More »

Upbeat Burt team pub on stem cells for MS comes with uneasy back story

February 1, 2021 / By / 6 Comments
Stem cells for MS, Types-of-Multiple-Sclerosis

Stem cells for MS? How promising is that? A new paper gives stronger reason for hope, but unfortunately this story is more complex than it seems on first glance. New Paper The idea of using a stem cell-related approach to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) has been around for a long time holding major promise, but …

Upbeat Burt team pub on stem cells for MS comes with uneasy back story Read More »

Patient’s Powerful Story on Multiple sclerosis and Getting Experimental Stem Cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 16 Comments
Caroline-Wyatt

Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be an extremely debilitating disease that ultimately is fatal in some patients and reduces life expectancy and quality overall substantially. An MS patient named Caroline Wyatt, who works at the BBC, had the courage to open up in full detail on the BBC about having MS, her experience getting an experimental …

Patient’s Powerful Story on Multiple sclerosis and Getting Experimental Stem Cells Read More »

Taming an unruly immune system: a risky stem cell transplant that changed fate of some Canadian MS patients

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment
Dr.-Harry-Atkins

By Hamideh Emrani (@HamidehEmrani) This year, Dr. Harold Atkins was honored with the Till & McCulloch Award. He and Dr. Mark Freedman led a clinical trial that used stem cells to reset the immune system as a treatment strategy for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and a few other neurodegenerative diseases, such as stiff person syndrome. You can …

Taming an unruly immune system: a risky stem cell transplant that changed fate of some Canadian MS patients Read More »

Burt Northwestern Stem Cell MS Trial Part 1: Big Promise & Tough Questions

February 1, 2021 / By / 45 Comments
Curing-Multiple-Sclerosis-Stem-Cells

Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University has been doing cutting edge research on the use of stem cells for autoimmune disorders for more than a decade. The core idea behind the work that Burt and other research teams are doing is that stem cells may have revolutionary potential to somehow counteract the autoimmunity that causes …

Burt Northwestern Stem Cell MS Trial Part 1: Big Promise & Tough Questions Read More »