Search Results for: artificial embryo

On St. Patrick’s Day, an update on stem cells in Ireland by Stephen Sullivan

February 1, 2021 / By
St.-Patricks-Day-Parade-Ireland-Musician-e1489764712521

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Irish Stem Cell Foundation (www.stemcell.ie)! I’ve included a few picture from the parade here in Ireland. Scientifically, Ireland is going through a lean period. The national science funding agency SFI is having its first grant call in 2 years. If recent history is a predictor, they are more likely …

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Weekly reads: Vertex, stem cells for MS, Athersys, 900-day paper review at Nature

March 2, 2024 / By / 1 Comment
“While still early, these results support the continued progression of our VX-880 clinical studies, as well as future studies using our encapsulated islet cells, which hold the potential to be used without the need for immunosuppression,” said Bastiano Sanna, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief of cell and genetic therapies at Vertex.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has a lot going for it right now on the cell therapy front. For instance, they have the strongest type 1 diabetes cell therapy pipeline after some recent acquisitions. Still it’s not a simple matter to succeed in the cell therapy space even with one therapy for one targeted disease. Trials are tough …

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Digging into the multiple ways to get stem cells

October 13, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
multiple ways to get stem cells

I get great questions from readers of The Niche including, “Are there multiple ways to get stem cells?” The answer is “yes.” Why is this important? The different sources of stem cells can impact both their use in basic research and their potential clinically. My goal in today’s post is to give an overview of …

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Recommend reads: CRISPR baby guy free, DNMT3, sperm, Editas, hearing loss, reprogramming

April 17, 2022 / By / 3 Comments
Dura et al sperm development

We often don’t think of them that way but reproductive cells like sperm and egg are also relatives of stem cells, and it turns out that there are stem cells that make the reproductive cells too like sperm stem cells. Sperm and germ cell stem cells DNMT3A-dependent DNA methylation is required for spermatogonial stem cells …

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Recommended reads: senolytics, cow iPS cells, big CIRM royalty

January 29, 2022 / By / 1 Comment
Senolytics Steve Horvath

When we hear the word senile we might think stereotypically of an older person who has cognitive impairment, but some argue that senility can apply to cells too as they age and that such cells can be targeted by drugs called senolytics. Unfortunately, the supplements industry has picked up on this idea to sell iffy …

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Stem cell news update: the good, the bad, & the weird

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
embryo-model-legos-1

With stem cells there’s always all kinds of developments and news every week or even every day. Here is an assortment in no particular order of some of the latest news including some across the spectrum including weird and sometimes stuff. The linked phrases are often the actual headlines of the media pieces. New CIRM …

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In Depth Report from April 29th Paris Human Gene Edit Meeting

February 1, 2021 / By
Paris-Gene-Editing-Meeting

Editor’s note. Caroline Simons attended both the April 28th (see her report on that here) and 29th Paris meetings on human gene editing/genetic modification. Today, we have her in depth report on the April 29th meeting. I have posted her piece in full with only minor edits. If you are in a rush you can …

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George Church chat: CRISPR people, Zika, weapons

January 21, 2023 / By / 4 Comments
George-Church

I talked last year about human genetic modification by CRISPR with George Church a year ago. Now we’ve followed up with a long chat on this topic going into much more detail and with questions on recent developments. Each question is listed numerically and then there is a back and forth on that question with George …

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Steven Pinker interview: case against bioethocrats & CRISPR germline ban

February 1, 2021 / By / 15 Comments
Steven-Pinker

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology is red-hot right now and I’ve been doing interviews with various thought leaders on it, which today includes Steven Pinker. This technology has great power for research in the lab and there are hypothetical transformative clinical applications of CRISPR too. The latter efforts could include experimental attempts at reversal of disease-causing …

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