Search Results for: adult stem cells

Is monkey cloning a breakthrough or a bad idea?

Monkey-clones

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 …

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Adverse event in IPS cell (ips細胞) trial for vision loss in Japan: initial perspectives

Takahashi-IPS-transplant

A team of researchers at RIKEN and Kobe City Medical Center reported at a press conference today a serious adverse event in a clinical trial participant receiving an induced pluripotent stem cell (IPS cell)-based therapy for vision loss. According to Japan Times and Yahoo! Japan (in Japanese), the patient in question in the IPS cell …

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Seeing isn’t always believing: a cautionary tale on GFP transfer when trying to restore vision

Valerie-Wallace

By Samantha Yammine When our TV stops working, it’s usually because one of the wires has come unplugged. We begrudgingly huff and puff over to the back of the TV, track down the loose culprit, plug it back in, and boom: back to Netflix. If you multiply all those wires in the back of your …

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Cynata approval for 1st ever allo trial of IPSC-derived MSCs for GVHD

Cynata

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 …

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Mesoblast stock on hold: Poll if you expect good or bad news

Mesoblast_Ltd

Adult stem cell biotech Mesoblast ($MESO) is in the unusual situation currently of having its stock on hold. This is a relatively rare event and usually portends some kind of major news. The hold is expected to run from June 1 to June 10. Mesoblast will announce ““material corporate developments with respect to certain assets …

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George Church chat: CRISPR people, Zika, weapons

George-Church

I talked last year about human genetic modification by CRISPR with George Church a year ago. Now we’ve followed up with a long chat on this topic going into much more detail and with questions on recent developments. Each question is listed numerically and then there is a back and forth on that question with George …

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Where are ES cell foes James Sherley & Theresa Deisher now?

Theresa-Deisher

Four or five years ago the top stem cell story was the battle over federal funding of human embryonic stem (ES) cell research in the U.S. by James Sherley and Theresa Deisher. They were the two opponents of ES cell research making the most national headlines. Nature did a whole piece back then on Deisher …

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Perspectives on Pedersen Lab Human-Mouse Chimera Paper

human-mouse-chimera

A new Cell Stem Cell paper by Victoria L. Mascetti and Roger Pedersen on human-mouse chimera modeling is quite interesting and important. I really enjoyed this short paper, but I do have a reservation about one way that it is being interpreted. The authors show that human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) including induced pluripotent stem cells …

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Steven Pinker interview: case against bioethocrats & CRISPR germline ban

Steven-Pinker

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology is red-hot right now and I’ve been doing interviews with various thought leaders on it, which today includes Steven Pinker. This technology has great power for research in the lab and there are hypothetical transformative clinical applications of CRISPR too. The latter efforts could include experimental attempts at reversal of disease-causing …

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Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Vision

Monkey-stem-cell-RPEs

Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代) on IPSC Trial for Macular Degeneration By Michael Cea Stem Cell Analyst & Advocate (editor’s note: piece was originally posted on Michael’s blog here; follow Michael on Twitter @msemporda) Masayo Takahashi interview Having followed closely the developments in programs using pluripotent based therapeutics I was fortunate during ISSCR2015 to have the opportunity to …

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