stem cell clinical trials

Long-term hope on stem cells for deafness

stem cells for deafness

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 …

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Google ads policy change to allow unproven cell & gene therapy educational material

Google ads policy, stem cell therapies

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 …

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Stem cell therapy: the good, the bad, & the muddy waters

stem-sells-marketing

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 …

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Mesoblast stock hit on gloomy data on stem cells for COVID-19

mesoblast ceo dr silvio itescu

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 …

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Overview of IPS cell prospects for clinical impact

IPS-cell-clincial-trials-map

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 …

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Groundbreaking Organoid Vision Clinical Study: Takahashi Q&A

Mandai-et-al-Stem-Cell-Reports-2017

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 …

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Stem cells for autism: time to hit pause in 2018?

stem-cells-autism

Stem cells for autism? After watching this area for many years, I’m not sure there’s any “there there”. There are logical reasons to think that certain stem cells might help many specific diseases, but in my view autism isn’t likely to be one of them. I hope I’m wrong, but today at least in 2018, …

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Quick Q&A with ViaCyte CEO on CRISPR-stem cell work

VC-01-post-implant-final1-e1503703572933, viacyte

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 …

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Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly, opens up about his Parkinson’s Disease

Ian-Wilmut

One of the most famous living biological scientists, Sir Ian Wilmut, just announced that he has Parkinson’s Disease. I wish him the best in dealing with this illness. Wilmut is very well-known for having cloned the first mammal, Dolly the Sheep. This work followed on the earlier breakthrough by Sir John Gurdon of cloning the …

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

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 …

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