A human embryo model is a laboratory-produced collection of living cells that has some key things in common with real human embryos. They are made from pluripotent stem cells, which include embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells. This research is both exciting and ethically complicated, raising some difficult questions. Embryo […]
It was a couple of years back that researcher He Jiankui claimed he made three “CRISPR babies.” No one would think about doing any kind of rogue gene-editing again, right? Not even somatic gene edits. After all, as far as we know he’s in jail. We still don’t know the health risks that these three
Ukraine clinic plans to sell CRISPR enhancements: hair color, skin, & breast size Read More »
If you were to see the phrase ‘Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product’ (ATMP) you might guess, ‘an advanced treatment that is a medicine?’ but you will not get much more from this without doing a lot more homework. What is an ‘Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product’ or ATMP? Whoever decided that cell and gene therapy products should
Cell and gene therapy products: what is an ATMP? Read More »
A new Cell paper from an international team led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte pushes human embryo chimera embryo research further than ever before. It is both exciting work and raises many complex bioethics questions at the same time. What is a human embryo chimera? By way of background, chimeric human embryos contain a mixture
Monkey human embryo chimera Cell paper: exciting, ethically complex direction Read More »
In the stem cell world some corporate names end up being very similar with the latest example being several companies with the name “BioLife.” Get a BioLife…name I guess BioLife is a catchy term. You’ve got life and biology in there in one name. Let’s deconstruct what’s going on out there with this corporate name.
Perspectives on BioLife: one name, distinct companies Read More »
I managed to escape to do some hiking along the coast so I’m behind on my weekly reading and I’m just getting back here on The Niche. Here are some articles I’m hoping to catch up on in coming days including an interesting overview of stem cells for tooth repair. I sometimes have a wistful
Weekly The Niche Reads: tooth repair, PRC2, beach pics Read More »
There are many ways to classify different stem cells including yours versus someone else’s cells, or in a clinical sense what we call an autologous vs allogeneic stem cell transplant. This post is focused on the difference between allogeneic (someone else’s cells) and autologous (your own) stem cell injections. As a stem cell biologist I
Autologous vs allogeneic: all you need to know on therapy Read More »
A new word has been added to the lexicon of human stem cell research – blastoids, aka “blastocyst-like structures.” Unlike the familiar three-layered embryo that emerges during the third week of prenatal development, the earlier blastocyst resembles a fluid-filled soccer ball, with a smear of cells on the interior face destined to develop into the
New lab-grown blastoids are strikingly similar to human embryos Read More »
What should we make of clinics like the Lung Health Institute? These clinics sell unproven stem cell or regenerative therapies for lung disease. Overall, I’m extremely skeptical. I don’t believe it’s worth the cost. There are also going to be potentially serious health risks. Lung disease is a broad category including COPD, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis,
Fact check: Lung Health Institute & cell therapies for lung disease Read More »
Sometimes change takes a very long time, but with brain organoids or advocating for better information for patients at Clinicaltrials.gov, after waiting you can see some interesting developments. These are two of the regenerative medicine stories of the week, along with some striking research papers. Clinicaltrials.gov Some of us have been advocating for improvements at
Regenerative reads: brain organoids, Clinicaltrials.gov change Read More »