A reader of The Niche recently asked me, “What about stem cells for deafness?” It’s a great question and, as they pointed out, stem cells for vision loss gets much more attention. I’ve covered the translational progress of stem cells to treat many diseases but there has been less progress for deafness in the regenerative […]
Long-term hope on stem cells for deafness Read More »
A planned change to the Google ads policy will allow some ads for unproven cell and gene therapies. This shift, allowing educational ads, was just announced. I have a few concerns about this change that will start in July. Google ads policy and stem cells This move seems to be a refinement of their “ad ban” policy
Google ads policy change to allow unproven cell & gene therapy educational material Read More »
How can you tell who to trust in the world of stem cell therapy? What information can a patient trust? Once upon a time about a dozen years ago it seemed a much simpler question. There were universities and biotech companies doing legit research as well as clinical trials, and there were physicians doing bone
Stem cell therapy: the good, the bad, & the muddy waters Read More »
I’ve been closely following the arena of stem cells for COVID-19 since the pandemic broke including the efforts of Mesoblast. Mesoblast unlikely to meet primary endpoints in Phase III COVID trial Now, the firm got bad news as its DSMB reported that they are unlikely to meet the primary endpoint for their Phase III trial
Mesoblast stock hit on gloomy data on stem cells for COVID-19 Read More »
IPS cell research is a growing area of promise for regenerative medicine. These stem cells, also known as iPSCs or more formally as Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, are engineered cells that are programmed to function the same way as embryonic stem cells. They can be differentiated into possibly any type of cell that is needed for
Overview of IPS cell prospects for clinical impact Read More »
Organoid based clinical trials are still rare and a Clinicaltrials.gov search for such organoid work largely brings up in vitro studies. A new clinical study in Japan where organoid material will actually be transplanted into patients is causing a lot of excitement. Organoid clinical trial Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) is a pioneer in stem cell-based
Groundbreaking Organoid Vision Clinical Study: Takahashi Q&A Read More »
We heard this week about the encouraging news of a new CRISPR-stem cell collaboration between stem cell biotech ViaCyte and CRISPR Therapeutics. The goal of the team is to make genetically engineered pancreatic derivatives from stem cells that would have a unique immune stealthiness. If such an approach was successful, patients would not need to
Quick Q&A with ViaCyte CEO on CRISPR-stem cell work Read More »
The idea of using stem cells for scleroderma seems a bit more promising today. A new NIH-funded study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) gives some hope for the use of a combination of a specific type of myeloablation and a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). This approach yields improved long-term
Stem cells for scleroderma, new NEJM article reports promise Read More »
By Jeanne Loring There are ten million people in the world who have Parkinson’s disease. 125,000 of these are living in California. People with the disease often have to step away from their jobs because the main symptoms – tremor or freezing up of muscles – make it difficult to get through a whole day
On the threshold of cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease Read More »
Stem cell good news time and more will be coming later this week. The stem cell and regenerative medicine world sometimes feels chaotic. Why? Because so much is going on both on the positive and negative sides of things. There is a whirlwind of activity and developments, and a tendency sometimes within our arena to
Stem cell good news: Spinal Cord Injury Trial, CIRM, Grants, & More Read More »