The Niche’s recommended Weekly Reads on stem cell research and regenerative medicine.
Vinay Prasad, the outgoing CBER Director (right), with Commissioner Marty Makary, at a cell and gene therapy roundtable last year. Vinay Prasad is leaving the FDA again in a few weeks. As CBER Director, Prasad was all over the place on how he handled oversight of biologics. He and Commissioner Marty Makary promised flexibility from […]
There have been more revelations about connections between George Church & Epstein in the past few weeks from the new Epstein files document drop. Church & Epstein I wrote earlier about how Jeffrey Epstein interacted with a team at Harvard/MGH. This included George Church and his colleague at the time Joe Thakuria. There were discussions
More on Church & Epstein, how simple “no” could have been, making amends? Read More »
Before we dive into the weekly reads, I wanted to explain something new on The Niche and ask for your support of our brain tumor research. Brain tumor research funding As many of you know, some firsthand, funding is extremely difficult to get these days. This is particularly true for NIH funding. Some NIH institutes
The stream of longevity hype can be exhausting, but there’s exciting research in this space too. This week there was some of both. It was also a wild week in the news for the FDA and its CBER branch too. Longevity hype vs. data from new research Can humans reverse aging? Harvard scientist predict revolutionary
Weekly reads: longevity hype vs. cool research, losing your Y, FDA maelstrom Read More »
It’s discouraging to see many media outlets posting sponsored content on stem cells and I never thought I’d see such an advertorial in The Atlantic. Yet there it was! Sponsored content on stem cells from The Atlantic Here it is: Stem Cell Transplantation’s New Frontiers, The Atlantic. Usually sponsored content on stem cells is junky. Most
It was exciting when the combined cell and gene therapies Casgevy and Lyfgenia were approved for sickle cell in late 2023. Still, one of the anticipated challenges was that the therapies could be so expensive that it would limit access. However, since the approval another challenge has emerged for Casgevy. We’ll start there, but first
Scientists sometimes disagree about research including not just what data might mean, but also what kinds of rules there should be about research like stem cell-based embryo models (SCBEM). It makes sense that the most cutting-edge research tends to spark the strongest disagreements. For instance, there’s no consensus on how much clinical trial data should
Weekly reads: human SCBEM framework, reporter self-injects peptides, ASD, NAMs Read More »
NIH just announced a fetal tissue research ban. We can also expect an end (or close to it) to funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research soon. There have been signs these were coming. Fetal tissue research ban, hESCs likely next Here’s the announcement: NIH Announces Major Policy Shift to End Use of Human
FDA politics and ideology-driven decision-making seem more complex than ever. Much of this is due to RFK Jr. being atop HHS. Before we dig into that, if you missed it, you might check out my predictions for the regenerative medicine field for the new year of 2026. It’s going to be a whirlwind of policy
What if humans can have kids without directly getting pregnant at all? Surrogacy may come to mind, but what if children can be produced without humans at all? A reproductive clinic would just use our cells. Getting even further into what feels like the sci-fi realm, what if you don’t even need regular sperm and