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 […]
Recommended reads: senolytics, cow iPS cells, big CIRM royalty Read More »
I’d say the paper of the week is on how PRC2 mediated H3K27me3 can in some sense replace elements of DNA methylation to repress. Very cool. Here it is: Sex-specific chromatin remodelling safeguards transcription in germ cells, Nature. Weird stuff In a merger of opposites, City of Hope to buy Cancer Treatment Centers of America
Weekly reads: PRC2, 2 weird bits of news, pubs, COVID stem cell hype Read More »
This week marked the release of new draft FDA guidance on cell and gene therapies. Is the FDA kind of like the guidance counselor at school or more like the principal? It probably depends on many factors. I also find it funny how pretty much everyone in academia and biotech industry works to be compliant
Weekly reads: New FDA guidance, brains, MSCs, senescence Read More »
This edition of The Niche weekly reads has a bit more good news than usual including on stem cell transplants. It’s nice to see positive developments like some recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants being able to stay at home afterwards. Also, a reminder. You have until July 31 to enter our stem cell video
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 »
Here are my recommended weekly reads for The Niche readership for early February 2021 including COVID-19 and stem cell lawsuit updates, papers, and more. How many papers do you end up reading each week or month these days? More or less than before the pandemic? COVID-19 updates New diabetes cases linked to covid-19, WaPo ICYMI
The Niche reads: COVID, new INDs, clinic suits, papers Read More »
Today’s The Niche recommended weekly reads post includes both primary papers and also a few media pieces. I’m especially interested in the first piece on making more complex embryo-like structures from ES cells. This is a long way from just making embryoid bodies or EBs. At the end of the post I discuss an article
Weekly The Niche reads: lab-grown embryos & thymus, more Read More »
When you sit down to read science on the weekends lately, assuming you are not primarily a COVID-19 researcher, how much COVID stuff seeps into your reading? As I was going over some of this year’s recommended weekly reads posts here on The Niche, I’ve realized that an increasing amount of COVID-19 research has joined
Recommended reads: PSC, COVID, FDA pledge, sci jobs Read More »
My lab’s new paper in Communications Biology focused on high-grade pediatric glioma that have mutant histone variant H3.3 and we did something fairly novel that we are calling reciprocal CRISPR. Kids with these tumors have a near zero survival rate within a few years of diagnosis so we as a field desperately need something new to give
Reciprocal CRISPR gene editing in pediatric glioma: defining mechanisms & testing drugs Read More »
My weekly roundups of biomedical news tend to focus on stem cells, but I read more broadly so it’s not just stem cells but also CAR-T cells and a lot more this week. CAR-T cells as senolytics? A team led by Scott Lowe has a new intriguing paper in Nature on using CAR-T cells to
Weekly roundup: CAR-T cells, exosomes, trout cloning Read More »