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 »
Many are jumping on the bandwagon of trying stem cells for COVID-19 or testing other cellular therapies for the novel coronavirus disease, but there have been problems with either the rationales for the trials themselves or more often with how they portrayed. Sometimes there has even been outright hype. I’ve called this collective trend of
Overselling stem cells for COVID-19: WSJ article & UMN PR Read More »
This is a post by Mina Kim, a UC Davis student intern for The Niche blog, about the main types of cellular therapies being studied clinically for COVID-19. During the novel coronavirus pandemic with millions of COVID-19 cases, the development of safe and effective treatments for patients is vital. Cellular medicine treatments are one of
Review of 4 cell therapy types under study for COVID-19 Read More »
Katie Thomas at the New York Times reports that BARDA has dropped considering funding applications for stem cells for COVID-19. The move is part of a larger shift in funding priorities away from lung treatments and toward vaccine development. The decision has puzzled and even angered some stem cell firms and researchers. BARDA stands for
BARDA drops funding of research into stem cells for COVID-19 Read More »
The term Regenerative Medicine covers so much biomedical science these days including everything from just about any kind of cell therapy (not just stem cells) to CRISPR gene editing, and with the the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems this umbrella use of the term now includes potential treatment of viral illnesses. It can be hard to
Update on stem cells for COVID-19, Surgisphere scandal Read More »
The idea of testing stem cells for COVID-19 may be music to the ears of some folks as an opportunity, but to me from the beginning it sounded mostly like a spaghetti on the wall road to trouble. There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with
Field throws stem cells for COVID-19 like spaghetti on the wall Read More »
The novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, have swept the world with few proven treatment options. Vaccines are only recently being rolled out the last 2 or so months, which gives some real hope. While the novel coronavirus-caused illness is generally a mild disease in kids (many of whom don’t even show symptoms),
The Niche COVID-19 updates & resources Read More »
When people discuss “fat stem cells” they usually mean “stromal vascular fraction” or SVF. While references to fat or adipose stem cells can sometimes mean non-SVF materials, these days adipose SVF gets the most attention. But, does anyone have a clear picture of this biologic? Fortunately, it’s starting to come more into focus in recent years
What is stromal vascular fraction or SVF? Read More »
The Joint Commission apparently has given some kind of seal of approval to the unproven stem cell clinic-related firm, the Lung Institute, or as it is now often called the Lung Health Institute. For me this raises concerns about the Joint Commission itself or at least its ambulatory care accreditation program through which Lung Health
Red flag for Joint Commission for its gold seal approval to former stem cell clinic firm Read More »
Could the blinding of three women at a stem cell clinic have been prevented by better oversight or was the clinic acting outside of the scope of oversight by its institutional review board (IRB)? More broadly, when is an IRB conducting proper oversight and how do we know? When on the other hand is it
Does stem cell clinic IRB approval mean much? Insights from blinding cases Read More »