Search Results for: embryonic stem cells

Weekly reads: freeze-dried cloning, FDA signals, stem cell escapees

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Human-cloning

Cloning is one of those topics that both fascinates and kind of scares people, especially the idea of duplicating people. I regularly cover the topic here on The Niche because stem cell technologies are involved. Also, one form of the process sometimes called “therapeutic cloning” involves embryonic stem cells. Duplicating mammals has now long been […]

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Fact-checking VSEL stem cells & VSEL treatment

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VSELs, vsel ratajczak paper issues

A few people in the stem cell field keep arguing that adult pluripotent stem cells exist, including so-called “very small embryonic-like stem cells” or VSEL stem cells. These days the supposed cells are called VSELs or V-cells too. Only a handful of researchers have ever been able to report finding and studying these cells. Others

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Weekly reads: neural stem cells, CRISPR brain, Vertex, cytoplasm surprise

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neural stem cells

Some people consider the brain to be equivalent to a living computer and in that sense it’s too bad that computers don’t have the equal of neural stem cells to help them fix themselves. Is the internet one big neural network-like web? There was a quake in the stem cell internet as CIRM’s main website

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Weekly reads: Melton leaves Harvard, Fuji, BBC blunder, stem cell niche, more

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Senolytics restore the stem cell niche in the brains of mice. Fatt, et al. Stem Cell Reports 2022.

Sometimes a post here on The Niche (named after the stem cell niche) sparks a debate between expert stem cell researchers and often that gives much more depth to a topic. Such was the case with my post this week on where things stand with stem cell therapy for heart disease. It led to a

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Weekly reads: possible rare HIV cure, stem cell chicken, FDA commish

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HIV infected T cell, HIV cure

The idea of stem cells outright curing diseases is exciting and has powerful appeal, but media need to be careful about using the word cure in headlines and articles as we saw this week related to a possible HIV Cure. HIV cure via stem cells and chemo? The big news of the week was that

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Recommended reads: senolytics, cow iPS cells, big CIRM royalty

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Senolytics Steve Horvath

When we hear the word senile we might think stereotypically of an older person who has cognitive impairment, but some argue that senility can apply to cells too as they age and that such cells can be targeted by drugs called senolytics. Unfortunately, the supplements industry has picked up on this idea to sell iffy

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Recommended reads: stem cell scientists, eggs from blood, Cryo-Cell

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Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka, the first to produce induced pluripotent stem cells

We’ll begin this week’s recommended reads with some news on two wonderful stem cell scientists. While there are thousands of stem cell scientists, some stand out for their especially creative work. News on stem cell scientists   Nobel laureate Yamanaka to retire as director of iPS cell center, Asahi Shimbun. Dr. Yamanaka will spend more time

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Explainer on 293 or HEK cells and their use in COVID vaccine research

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HEK 293 cells Knoepfler Lab

A type of human cells used in research called HEK cells or 293s has been much in the news lately. This is mainly related to COVID-19 vaccine research. There seem to be many misunderstandings about 293 cells. For that reason, I thought I’d do this post to clear things up. I’ve been working with these

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