Research Archives - Page 3 of 12

Weekly reads: Macchiarini pub, cloned journal, Mammoth genome, tweet of the week

April 9, 2023 April 8, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

Remember Paolo Macchiarini, the famous-turned-infamous so-called “stem cell surgeon” who ended up in legal trouble and with trial participants who died? Before we get into this we have a new feature for our weekly reads, which is the stem cell and regenerative medicine tweet of the week. See that at the bottom of the post. …

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The role of belief in hard science: the VSEL case

April 4, 2023 April 4, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 5 Comments

As we think about how much of a role belief should play in the hard sciences such as cell biology, a supposed cell type called VSEL or very-small embryonic stem cell-like cells comes to mind. For these guys it seems to me that the ratio of data to belief isn’t great. VSELs have nine lives. I …

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Weekly reads: UC Davis Medical School diversity, CRISPR, Parkinson’s

March 26, 2023 March 25, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

It’s been almost seventeen years that I’ve been a professor here at UC Davis Medical School. It feels like home. I enjoy teaching our first-year medical students each year. Some end up doing research in my lab. Our school recently got a nice write-up over at STAT News by Usha Lee McFarling on the diversity …

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How many academic scientists could pass a likable person test?

March 21, 2023 March 21, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

What if there was a likable person test that we could take to see how other people really view us scientists? How would that work? It turns out that a sense of likability might be more influential in academia than some of us might think, but it’s often problematic too. This came to mind because …

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Stem cell research ethics topics: organoid consciousness & embryo models

February 28, 2023 February 28, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

Someday could human brain organoids get to the point of having organized human-like thoughts? Even consciousness? The more time passes, the less likely I think this is. It’s not impossible, but brain organoids have big limitations in that regard. To be clear, I don’t mean brain organoids having some vaguely human brain-like electrical activity. Even monolayers of …

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Weekly reads: bat stem cells & viruses, Lineage Cell, He Jiankui visa

February 26, 2023 February 25, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

Occasionally when I write a post there is an angry reaction to it in the blog comments, which was the case for my recent fact-check of the LifeWave X39 patches. As you can see in that post, I didn’t find convincing data to either back up the claimed stem cell connection. In my opinion, there …

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Weekly reads: He Jiankui disappoints, ALS, Vor Biopharma

February 19, 2023 February 19, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / Leave a Comment

I’m sure many of you remember He Jiankui, the guy who made CRISPR babies. He ended up serving three years in jail in China. He seems to be trying for something of a comeback since his release. Were He Jiankui invitations a mistake? Some prestigious places have even invited him to give talks, which seemed …

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Weekly reads: H3.3 on the brain, Texas bill, HSCs

January 22, 2023 January 21, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

It’s always exciting when your lab has a new paper and my team just published a study knocking out the H3f3a gene in mice, which codes for histone H3.3 protein. We found that loss of this gene leads to lethality at a late stage of embryonic development. There were also indications of more specific phenotypes …

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Does Medicare cover stem cell therapy? Mostly no & it’s poised to recoup tens of millions

January 19, 2023 January 19, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 2 Comments

Regenative labs, does Medicare cover stem cell therapy?

Does Medicare cover stem cell therapy? Readers of The Niche have regularly asked this question. They’re curious about insurance coverage too. The answer is “no” in almost every case, with some notable exceptions I’ll get to at the end of the post. Still, clinics appear to have already been charging Medicare for what collectively adds …

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Weekly reads: stem cell good news, bad news on sickle cell, MS, IPSCs

January 8, 2023 January 7, 2023 / By Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. / 1 Comment

victoria gray family crispr sickle cell b

Let’s start with some stem cell good news on evolving approaches to treat sickle cell disease involving stem cells. Then on another related front things were more concerning. Stem cell good news on sickle cell disease, a complication Sickle Cell Disease News reports Adding Briquilimab Boosts Success of Sickle Cell Stem Cell Transplant. This is a …

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