Reading to them was one of my favorite things to do with my kids when they were little, but it’s a long way from Goodnight Moon to this week’s list of recommended reads, although “bee brain” may have got their attention. Please take a minute to complete our The Niche reader survey for a chance […]
Recommended reads: Bee brain, COVID, from Russia with stem cells, pubs Read More »
It’s helpful for me to learn about the readers of this blog The Niche in terms of who you are and your backgrounds. Because some people may want to vote more than once on the types of posts they like the most, I’ve allowed re-voting on that poll. Free stuff Those who participate and leave
Enter the Niche Reader Survey for chance at free stem cell swag Read More »
Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is counterintuitive In the weeks and months following a transplant, a major concern is the recipient’s immune system rejecting the “foreign” biological material. But in GVHD, the opposite happens: transplanted tissue unleashes a horde of T cells that spark a cascade of inflammation, within 100 days. Typically, GVHD follows a bone marrow
Mesoblast MSCs Quell Peds GvHD; On Road to FDA Approval? Read More »
In COVID-19, the sense of smell can diminish, vanish, or oddly skew, for weeks or months. The loss usually starts suddenly and is more than the temporarily dulled chemical senses of a stuffy nose from the common cold. As researchers followed up mounting reports of loss of olfaction, a surprising source of perhaps the longest-lasting
Sniffing Out Stem Cells Behind COVID-Skewed Olfaction Read More »
The Niche has had many authors over the years, focusing on expertise in the biomedical arena and in particular related to stem cells. I’ve invited many authorities in particular areas to write posts. Over the years I’ve written probably 99+% of the posts here on The Niche, but we’ve also had some great guest authors
Authors on The Niche Read More »
When I was a little kid I played this game called “connect the dots” or “dot-to-dot”, where you draw a line from dot-to-dot in numerical order and at some point a picture starts to emerge. I think kids and even some adults still play this today. They even come in extreme versions with hundreds or
Trying to connect the dots on CRISPR baby story paints a dark, cloudy picture Read More »
Stem cells are always in the news so what’s up in the last week or two? CIRM News The dialogue over CIRM’s future is picking up a bit of steam. The San Francisco Chronicle did an in-depth piece on CIRM some weeks back and then opined that they didn’t feel supportive of another round of
News bites: CIRM, anti-MSCs, & human eggs from stem cells Read More »
Is monkey cloning a good idea? We’re about to find out. A new Cell paper today reports the first cloning of monkeys via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), raising many questions. The paper from a team led by Qiang Sun is entitled, “Cloning of Macaque Monkeys by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.” The highlight bullet points
Is monkey cloning a breakthrough or a bad idea? Read More »
We can be confident that human genetic modification via CRISPR’ing of embryos soon will be safe and effective after that new exciting Mitalipov team paper, right? Wrong. The reality is far more complicated and interesting on the tech side. In a nutshell, I see the paper as a significant scientific, but not necessarily medical advance.
4 key reasons Mitalipov paper doesn’t herald safe CRISPR human genetic modification Read More »
It’s fun and useful for me to learn about the readers of this blog in terms of who they are and what their interests are in terms of the types of posts that I do. Below are the results of two recent reader surveys that I did to get this kind of information. The two
Blog reader survey results & winner of the stem cell swag Read More »