Search Results for: mscs

Burst Biologics unapproved biologic used by Weill Cornell: was there a cover-up?

Burst Biologics, Christopher Jones

The New York Times just broke a story on Burst Biologics and Weill Cornell that fits with long-standing troubling questions about regenerative biologics producers. The story also bears on the doctors and hospitals like Weill Cornell that were or are customers of the suppliers. Further, what is the FDA’s role in all of this? The …

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Weekly reads: stem cell therapy for eyes research, DMD, cheating death, cancer sensors

stem cell therapy

Many avenues are being pursued to get stem cell therapy to the clinic for eye conditions. These different approaches employ a variety of stem cell types. In some cases, such as with iPS cells, the stem cells themselves are not transplanted. Instead, the iPS cells are used to make differentiated eye cells, such as RPE …

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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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Weekly reads: BioCardia, HeLa suit, illegal bio lab in CA

mesenchymal cells

A days ago the news came about Mesoblast not getting FDA approval for its MSC product for GvHD. The MSC area has had a rough few years with various clinical trials including for COVID. The “stem cells for heart disease” arena has also had a tough time. Here’s more news along these lines: BioCardia pauses enrollment in PhIII trial …

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Update on stem cells & cell therapy for COVID trials

cell therapy for COVID

From the beginning of the pandemic, I have been mostly skeptical about the idea of cell therapy for COVID including stem cell therapies. However, at the same time, I’ve closely followed the data, especially up until 2022. Now having just had a nasty bout with COVID myself for the first time this summer, I recently …

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Weekly reads: cell therapy trials, melanoma, β-thalassemia

stem cell therapy

I’m kind of in grant writing hell at the moment, as many of you may have been at various times, but I’m still finding time to read a little on cell therapy and stem cell research. Here are some things that caught my eye as I work on multiple grants with impending deadlines. Clinical trials …

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Can stem cell therapy for back pain work?

stem cell therapy for back pain

I often get asked about where things stand with stem cell therapy for back pain, which is the focus of today’s post. Back pain is a complex condition with many potential causes. New treatments are needed as existing approaches often don’t work that well. What about stem cells? Stem cell therapy or other cell therapy …

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Where Kimera Labs fits into sphere of exosome companies

Kimera labs exosome

Today’s post takes a close look at the exosome manufacturer Kimera Labs in the context of the main exosome companies. What are exosomes? Exosomes are microscopic bubbles or vesicles produced by cells. Exosomes contain many cellular substances that are biologically active. Some of these materials may be helpful clinically, while others could pose risks. Clinical outcomes …

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WHYY oh WHYY: NPR puff piece on risky stem cell microneedling

I usually associate NPR with solid journalism so I was scratching my head about a recent puff piece by WHYY on stem cell microneedling.  Is this journalism or product promotion? The NPR piece by Maiken Scott doesn’t ask important questions. Scott received stem cell microneedling herself using a product from a company called AnteAGE. How …

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Heart stem cells trial mostly disappoints but is oversold

heart stem cells

Are there endogenous adult heart stem cells that are useful in cardiac disease or can stem cell infusions help ailing hearts? As to the first question, the adult heart does not appear to have meaningful numbers of true stem cells. Further, testing the idea of infusions of stem cells for heart disease has so far been giving …

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