Research Archives - The Niche

Google AI overviews on stem cells are a bust so far & endanger public health

May 22, 2024 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 8 Comments

I’ve been wondering how the new Google AI overviews feature on its search platform would turn out for various stem cell searches. Frankly, I had a bad feeling that Google was going to blow this. Unfortunately, it seems even worse than I anticipated. Let’s go through three examples and talk about why this is so

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Weekly reads: Alzheimer’s & lipid droplets, stem cells for COPD, fecal tx warning, med school teaching

March 24, 2024 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

So many things go wrong during the lead up to clinically-evident Alzheimer’s disease. This complex disease pathway has, in turn, led to a vast array of approaches to try to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s. Most of these efforts one way or another have something to do with the amyloid plaques and tangles that accumulate in the

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Key Mayo Clinic stem cell webpage is overexuberant & outdated

March 21, 2024 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

The Mayo Clinic does some great research on stem cells and regenerative medicine. However, at times I’ve felt that a few Mayo researchers are overexuberant. This mainly relates to certain not-yet-proven stem cell and related offerings. Fitting with that perception, the Mayo website also has some inaccurate stem cell content that leans toward overstating things.

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The zoo that is stem cells on Reddit

February 23, 2024 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 9 Comments

Can you learn important things about stem cells on Reddit? Yes, you can, but it’s a wild experience at times. Researchers may often think about stem cells through the lens of traditional routes of communication like academic journals, but laypeople turn elsewhere to learn about regenerative medicine. This includes digging into stem cells on Reddit.

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Man could get 240 yrs for amniotic fluid for knees Medicare scam

February 6, 2024 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 3 Comments

A Justice Department press release details how a physician’s assistant (PA) in Texas was convinced of fraud related to amniotic fluid injections. This story tells us some important things about how Medicare handles things versus the FDA approach to such things. Amniotic fluid scam A jury found Ray Anthony Shoulders, a PA at a pain

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Weekly reads: Google, CIRM, young Swedish bone marrow

November 12, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 13 Comments

For me, this was another week of heavy grant writing but also taking on Google again. How? Over how badly its search engine often performs on stem cell queries. I have a new piece at MedPage Today. It’s focused on the problem of Google Search promoting unproven stem cell clinic websites. Google still prefers stem

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Weekly reads: Mammoth De-extinction update, space babies, Alzheimer’s, MSCs don’t help knees

November 5, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 6 Comments

What’s more important than Woolly Mammoth de-extinction research in the stem cell arena? Only maybe a 10,000 other things. Still, the mammoth de-extinction efforts capture people’s attention much more than the average research story. Mammoth De-extinction update Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out, Popular Science.

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Weekly reads: new Sergiu Pasca pub, CRISPR chicken, human gene count update, stem cells in China

October 15, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

Most of us have heard of organoids but what about the related model called an “assembloid”, which is a term growing in use including from organoid researcher Sergiu Pasca of Stanford? Before we jump into that, be sure to enter The Niche stem cell image contest for your chance to win $100 or some swag.

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Weekly reads: stem cells for epilepsy from Neurona Therapeutics, diabetes, contagious cancer

October 8, 2023 / Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

Neurona Therapeutics, stem cells for epilepsy

People often ask me what are the most promising stem cell therapies in development and new data suggest we should add stem cells for epilepsy to the list based on work by Neurona Therapeutics. I’ll start off the weekly recommended reads with this new mouse paper on cell therapy for epilepsy. Neurona Therapeutics: stem cells

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