Although in my years as a stem cell biologist I haven’t yet been in a leadership role at the International Society for Stem Cell Research or ISSCR, unproven stem cell clinics have claimed that I somehow speak for ISSCR. I am just a standard member of the group like thousands of other researchers. In fact, […]
Recommended reads: ISSCR guidelines pushback, TB outbreak from regen product, pubs Read More »
After the COVID-19 pandemic started clinical trials quickly sprouted up to test various kinds of cell therapy for COVID-19 including stem cells. The most common rationale for this approach is to suppress damaging overactive immune responses. Trials of cell therapy for COVID-19 including stem cells I’ve written quite a lot about these cellular medicine and
Our new paper assessing trials of cell therapy for COVID-19 Read More »
Professor Joanne Kurtzberg’s clinical work at the Duke Autism Center on umbilical cord blood for autism and cerebral palsy (CP) involves a partnership with a publicly-traded cord blood banking firm called Cryo-Cell. Kurtzberg is also the Medical Director at the firm. In addition they have intellectual property in this area. The Duke team’s efforts, including
Duke & Cryo-Cell plan big clinic for unproven infusions of kids Read More »
My to-read list this weekend includes a range of papers along with various news & media including a report of two US research groups aiming to get CRISPR baby patents. More on that below. At long last a trip + fun thing to do in NYC Last week I took my first trip in more
Weekly reads: escape to New York, CRISPR baby patents, ISSCR guidelines, pubs Read More »
Something called the 14-day rule on growing human embryos in the lab helped keep a tough question in check for a long time: when is it ethically wrong or just practically unwise to continue growing a human embryo for research? There is no good answer based on science or anything else. ISSCR moves beyond strict
Risks rise as ISSCR drops strict 14-day rule on human embryo growth in the lab Read More »
Sometimes things in the stem cell world get complicated and this week is no exception with news of Orchard Therapeutics dropping a seemingly life-saving clinical trial. There are hundreds of kids who could possibly benefit. Rotten apple decision from Orchard Therapeutics From David Jensen at California Stem Cell Report we have something of a scoop:
Weekly reads: Orchard punts on life-saving SCID trial, cardioids with cavities, more Read More »
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 »