Search Results for: covid

Recommended reads: jobs, FDA letter, & The Niche new look

the body building fda letter the niche

During the week as I’m doing other stuff I keep my eyes open for interesting things to read, including over the weekend about stem cell research, COVID, CRISPR, and more for The Niche weekly recommended reads. This week a lot was going as we updated The Niche site to our new theme and format. I …

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2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award goes to Stephen Hahn

Dr-Stephen-Hahn-Commissioner-of-FDA

Today’s post announces the winner of the 2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award. Since this is the inaugural year for The Screamers, I’m just going to give out one main award: Overall Worst Science Hype. Science Hype Award to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Remarkably, the winner of the overall The Screamers Award for Science Hype …

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21 Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine 2021 Predictions

stem-cell-crystal-ball-300x3001

In any given field of biomedical science like stem cell research and regenerative medicine, it’s very useful if you can accurately predict the future. It seems, though, that predictions are far more difficult within the more exciting and rapidly-changing fields. The field of stem cells and regenerative medicine fits that bill. Past stem cell research …

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Weekly reads & paper of the week: gene-editing vs. aging

koblan et al 2020 nature gene editing progeria

The paper of the week reports using base-editing, a kind of gene-editing, to reverse mutations associated with rapid aging syndromes, generally called progeria, but there are a lot of other interesting pubs to recommend for reading this week. I go over it all in this post. Gene-editing to fight premature aging syndromes In vivo base …

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Recommended reads: MSCs, vision, endothelial cells, more

wang et al 2020 science advances

What a year 2020 was, but there was still plenty of great science, which continues now in 2021 including published research like today’s recommended pieces and there’s one thread on MSCs today. The Niche new look, more features, and a Medical Advisory Board for 2021 Before we get to the recommended reads, note that 2021 …

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Grading my 20 stem cell predictions for 2020

Knoepfler-The-Niche-stem-cell-blog-predictions-2020

Each year I metaphorically try to look into a crystal ball for stem cell predictions for the coming year and I did so for 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into my predictions. It actually kind of blew some up. It also raised some interesting questions and dilemmas. For instance, do many …

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Jellyfish on the brain: a critical look at Prevagen

crystal jellyfish aequorea victoria, Prevagen

I’ve been asked many times over the years if stem cell injections at for-profit clinics can help brain function, but recently the more common query is whether brain supplements such as Prevagen actually work. I’m skeptical of both unproven stem cell injections and supplements that are supposed to somehow help the brain, but some of …

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Weekly pubs & 2 stem cell clinics get bad news

markiewicz potoczny nature 2020 trf2 es cells

Even in COVID times the FDA continues its stepped-up efforts against stem cell clinics and patients are suing clinics more too, which I cover in today’s post along with recommended stem cell research pubs. One of the papers at the top of my to-read list is on 3D chromatin in stem cells. FDA Warning Letter …

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Stem cell reads: liver buds, MSCs, SMARC, more

Liver-buds-from-stem-cells

It’s fitting, given the edginess over the election, that Halloween is falling only a few days before election day so here is a list of recommended stem cell reads for you to dive into some biomedical science. Liver buds from stem cells Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived liver buds with chemically defined and …

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More Duke Autism Center backstory: stem cell ‘magic’ & money

Duke-Curemark-autism-study-pamphlet

Last week I wrote a long post detailing the troubling multimillion-dollar reverberations between the Duke Autism Center and a for-profit stem cell clinic. The clinic in Panama is The Stem Cell Institute. The potential entanglements raise a bunch of questions and concerns. They center on questionable, unproven autism “treatments”. In Duke’s case, their own clinical …

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