Some unproven stem cell clinics like one called Giostar have multiple locations sprouting up. To me the concern with that spreading is the potential of multiplying risks to consumers. It can be hard to get a clear take on what these clinics are doing too. What’s in this article What is Giostar? | Giostar review | …
Giostar stem cell clinic chain review, red flags, & lawsuit Read More »
After all this time writing on The Niche here since 2010, I still haven’t entirely resolved certain blogging dilemmas including when a patient discloses something. It’s kind of a jungle out there on the internet. What kinds of tough blogging dilemmas do I face? I’m just going to give you some examples of the more common …
Stem cell blogging dilemmas: patient disclosures, lawsuits, & more Read More »
Something called, “The International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing” has issued a new report on heritable human genome editing (HHGE). The Commission was convened by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.K.’s Royal Society. This post is my initial take on the summary of …
New human genome editing (HHGE) academy report: solid, but key gaps Read More »
Michael Le Page over at The New Scientist reports on a new paper describing the birth of monkey-piglet chimeras. Unlike most such primate embryo chimeras formed in research in the past, these were allowed to be born. A litter of ten from the new monkey-pig research, two of which were chimeras, all rather quickly died …
Monkey-pig chimeras pub discouraging for similar human research toward organ transplants Read More »
There’s nothing like stem cell good news and interesting publications to perk one up on a Monday. Enjoy. What recent papers have struck you as exciting? Novel stem cell-based cancer approaches (Part 1) It was exciting when Fate Therapeutics got the first induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC) IND in the U.S. for their IPSC-derived natural killer cell …
Stem cell good news: novel cancer work, new CA bills, Alzheimer’s, & more pubs Read More »
What happens if we mix stem cells with populism? From a populist view of stem cells, everyday patients should be able to do nearly anything they want with stem cells without any governmental interference or excessive expense. Even stem cells not proven to be safe or effective. This can sound like an appealing idea to …
It’s germline, heritable human CRISPR time, right? Wrong. But the particularly enthusiastic supporters of heritable human CRISPR often cite hypothetical benefits in glowing terms, but either don’t mention risks or strongly downplay them. These fans also tend to leave alternative, proven and safe technologies such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) out of the discussion or …
Countering that Pro-Heritable Human CRISPR WSJ Piece Read More »
Are designer babies made using CRISPR or other genetic modification technologies closer to reality today? If so, what exactly should we do about it? Researchers can use CRISPR to genetically modify just about any organism or its cells, but targeting humans is the subject of the most intense discussion including using CRISPR in the human germline …
CRISPR, human genetic modification, & a needed course correction Read More »
What happens for patients and clinics after a stem cell facelift gone wrong? What about other cell injection problems? Cell therapies raise new challenges and risks. You can stop taking a pill or an injection treatment. However, you can’t stop or retract stem cell treatments if there’s a bad side effect. Unlike other kinds of …
Clinics can’t retract problems like stem cell facelift gone wrong Read More »
Cynata Therapeutics Limited has received approval from UK regulators to start a first-of-its-kind allogeneic IPSC-based trial of MSCs for graft versus host disease (GVHD). Cynata also had some big news a couple weeks back with a deal with Fujifilm. The company is aiming to recruit 16 patients to test whether the MSCs (a type of adult …
Cynata approval for 1st ever allo trial of IPSC-derived MSCs for GVHD Read More »