Search Results for: heart

Another kind of stem cell tragedy: William P. Murphy passes at 100

William P. Murphy, US Stem Cell

It’s kind of a tragedy that William P. Murphy, former chairman of unproven stem cell clinic firm, US Stem Cell, might be most remembered after his recent passing for his doings there.  For example, I didn’t know until now of his prolific past as a biomedical inventor who did a lot of good. Instead, my impression of …

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Can trying to cheat death paradoxically kill you sooner?

anti-aging, Dorian Gray

Can you paradoxically kill yourself early by trying to cheat Death? For example, die through risky anti-aging approaches? The question came to mind because such longevity efforts have become more extreme. They also get more hype in the media. I’ve been following the anti-aging space mainly because many interventions involve risky stem cell injections. Those …

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Weekly reads: Verve Therapeutics, Casgevy UK OK, GDNF, MYC

Sekar Kathiresan, Verve Therapeutics

Some folks can view data from early, small clinical trials too skeptically or overly enthusiastically, and maybe that’s going on with some preliminary results from Verve Therapeutics. Good news? Bad news? I’m going to start with two articles about the same news that have very different vibes. What do I think? On the whole, I …

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3 cell therapy companies doing well: Vertex, Vericel, & Regeneron

Vericel, Cell Therapy Companies

Cell therapy companies face many hurdles. I wrote recently about four cell therapy biotechs that have been really struggling. Blogging here at The Niche for more than a dozen years, I’ve seen many companies even go under. That’s bad news for the field, for patients, and for investors. Today I wanted to highlight some cell therapy …

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Weekly reads: Mammoth De-extinction update, space babies, Alzheimer’s, MSCs don’t help knees

George Church De Extinction Mammoth

What’s more important than Woolly Mammoth de-extinction research in the stem cell arena? Only maybe a 10,000 other things. Still, the mammoth de-extinction efforts  capture people’s attention much more than the average research story. Mammoth De-extinction update Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out, Popular Science. …

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Lessons from 4 stem cell stocks that tanked: Celularity, Athersys, Mesoblast, BrainStorm Cell

Athersys stock, Athersys, stem cell stocks

I’ve been following 24 stem cell stocks for a few years. I haven’t invested in them or any others recently, but rather just find them interesting. How are these doing in 2023? Mostly not great. In some cases, it is downright disastrous. Let’s take a quick look at four stocks very much in the news over …

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Weekly reads: artificial wombs, mice with rat brains, Neuralink

artificial wombs

It feels like we are marching towards a future in which key aspects of human reproduction, including the use of artificial wombs, could be substantially different than for most of history. The FDA is considering allowing a clinical trial for use of artificial wombs in people. Human trials of artificial wombs could start soon. Here’s …

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Goldwater Institute weighs in against FDA on Cell Surgical Network lawsuit appeal

Elliot Lander, Cell Surgical Network

An important appeals case is pending not just for the defendants Cell Surgical Network, et al., but also for the FDA. It could impact the stem cell field very broadly too. Cell Surgical Network lawsuit status Hopefully, we’ll get a decision before the end of this year. Cell Surgical Network is a large chain of …

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Weekly reads: embryonic stem cells, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s

Knoepfler lab stem cells

Early during my postdoc I was primarily interested in the role of Myc genes both in cancer and in stem cells, work that later included embryonic stem cells. These cells are often called ES cells. At first I first started studying N-Myc in neural stem cells using a conditional knockout approach. However, soon after I was …

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Did US Stem Cell Clinic defy FDA injunction? New injured patient suit sparks questions

Dr. Antonio E Blanco MD, US Stem Cell

It feels like I’ve been writing about the Florida clinic US Stem Cell for a very long time. The FDA has been aware of them for about as long. It was only after reports of patient injuries that the FDA at last took action on US Stem Cell and its subsidiary US Stem Cell Clinic. Several …

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