Weekly Reads

The Niche’s recommended Weekly Reads on stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

Weekly stem cell reads: cancer paper mess at DFCI, H3.3, knees, surfer keeps on posting

January 28, 2024 / By / Leave a Comment
Sholto David, stem cell, cancer retractions

It’s another one of those ‘double-grant’ weekends of grant writing (on brain cancer) and reviewing, but I’m still trying to find a bit of time for some other reading. There was some important news this week including a big mess of problematic papers at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). Recommended reads Here’s the new WaPo …

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Weekly reads: MiMedX & Kimera Labs FDA warnings, NYT on Bryan Johnson, MUSE cell trial

January 21, 2024 / By / 10 Comments
AXIOFILL, MiMedx

Placental biologics firm MiMedx and exosome company Kimera Labs both recently received FDA warning letters. The letter to MiMedx was related to its placental biologics products and procedures. The new warning to Kimera Labs was about its exosome products and an amniotic product. Let’s compare these letters starting with the one to MiMedX. MiMedx warning letter …

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Weekly reads: Vertex & CRISPR Therapeutics, Arnold Caplan death, MS genetics

January 14, 2024 / By / 5 Comments
CRISPR Therapeutics

The biotechs Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics have an interesting relationship as biotechs. They are partners are multiple levels but also are very different as companies including in size. There’s been a key development in one of their partnerships. Before we jump into that, please check out the video version of my 20 stem cell and …

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Weekly reads: game of clones, super-SOX, Moonwalk Bio, Great Wall’s living skin

January 6, 2024 / By / Leave a Comment
dog clones

I’m trying to remember the first time I ever heard about clones. It had to be as a kid. Maybe in a monster movie or TV show? Possibly a clone was referred to by the more general term “double”, which is not necessarily a clone. Whatever it was, I’m sure as a kid that I …

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New Year’s reads: having a blastema, gene therapy cost, pathogen lab escape data

December 31, 2023 / By / 4 Comments
blastema

Years ago I wrote about how I wished humans could form a blastema, which is a special area of regeneration near an injury that drives tissue replacement. For example, when a lizard loses its tail to a pursuing bobcat, if it can regrow a new one that process will depend on a blastema. The same goes …

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Holiday reads: woolly dog vs. mammoth, man eggs, designer B-cells, bluebird bio blues

December 23, 2023 / By / Leave a Comment
woolly dog

What is a woolly dog? Is it somehow related to the Woolly Mammoth? Before we get into that and the rest of my recommended reads, note that I’m finalizing my list of contenders for this year’s The Screamers Science Hype Awards. Last year The BBC won The Screamers for an article “Baby’s life ‘probably saved’ …

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Weekly reads: RMAT jump, tissues as liquid crystals, gov stem cell advisor scammed of $650K

December 16, 2023 / By / Leave a Comment
RMAT, FDA data

The FDA has a unique mechanism called RMAT or regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation. It’s intended to move investigational regenerative therapies forward more effectively. RMAT data I recently updated The Niche RMAT list and it has jumped to 85. The FDA has approved many new RMATs this year. The data on how many applications the FDA …

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Weekly reads: FDA OKs 2 gene therapies for sickle cell, new Paolo Macchiarini series, Fujifilm

December 9, 2023 / By / 1 Comment
Marie Tornyenu, Casgevy gene therapies for sickle cell

The big news broke Friday that the FDA approved two new gene therapies for sickle cell disease. While the approvals were expected and the actual use of these treatments will be complex on several levels, this is a historic development. 2 FDA-approved gene therapies for sickle cell Friday’s news follows on recent UK approval for …

Weekly reads: FDA OKs 2 gene therapies for sickle cell, new Paolo Macchiarini series, Fujifilm Read More »

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 …

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Weekly reads: clonal expansion, Golden Retriever cancer, FTC hits genetics firm on testi-phony-als

November 25, 2023 / By / 1 Comment
clonal selection

Let’s start this week’s digest with a discussion of clonal expansion and mutations during cell and gene therapy development. Here’s the article that brought this to mind. Sickle cell gene therapy process may cause cancer-linked mutations in blood stem cells, Fierce Biotech. Clonal expansion This is a story about a non-CRISPR gene therapy using a …

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