A committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) did one heck of a document dump yesterday on stem cell policy, releasing a whole bunch of policy recommendations on stem cells and more. The torrent from ISSCR included a 37-page policy statement itself as well as several papers in top journals including the […]
ISSCR Releases Flood of Stem Cell Policy Docs Read More »
What’s better for stem cell trials such as for vision loss or Parkinson’s Disease: allogeneic or autologous cells? In a major shift earlier this year, the induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cell trial in Japan for treatment of macular degeneration (MD) switched gears from using the patients’ own cells (called “autologous”) to using banked cells from
Parkinson’s IPS cell trial in Japan switching to allogeneic Read More »
It’s time for The Niche 4th annual Stem Cell Person of the Year Award process to start. Please send me your nominations for the person you think had the biggest positive impact in the stem cell and regenerative medicine world in 2015. This award is unique in a number of ways. For example, anyone in
Stem Cell Person of the Year Award 2015: Nominations Open Read More »
There’s a growing stream of stem cell good news of late. Stem cell biotech, TiGenix, reported encouraging Phase 3 allogeneic results on stem cells. A big milestone. I can’t wait to see the actual data. Its product, Cx601, has so far been safe and effective for perianal fistulas in Crohn’s disease. See more from Alexey on this. CIRM has funded the largest
Stem cell good news briefs: TiGenix, Asterias, CIRM, Awards, & More Read More »
ISSCR Chat By Michael Cea Jeanne Loring of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California kindly sat down with me at the ISSCR annual meeting for a broad discussion of her history, views on the field and developments in the science. I found Jeanne a refreshing character, as I did a number of others I was
Michael Cea ISSCR chat with Jeanne Loring on stem cell field Read More »
As many of you know, the pioneering, first of its kind IPS cell clinical study in Japan has been suspended as I first blogged about here.2020 Update: I believe a version of this study is ongoing. In the comments section of that blog post there has been a helpful overall discussion that has involved Dr.
Historic turning point for IPS cell field in Japan? Read More »
The pioneering induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC) clinical study in Japan led by top stem cell clinical researcher Dr. Masayo Takahashi has been stopped reports the WSJ in Japan. This development is confirmed by other sources and in a PDF report by RIKEN (in Japanese here). One patient was transplanted in September 2014 with their own IPSC-derived
Landmark IPSC clinical study on hold due to genomic issue Read More »
The annual ISSCR meeting has started in Stockholm. This is always a great annual meeting both for the science and for connecting with people including new friends and colleagues as well as old friends. Another element to the meeting is the insider conversations in the halls, restaurants, and bars that tell a behind the scenes
Insider Trends on Stem Cells to Look Out for at ISSCR 2015 Stockholm Read More »
At the recent RPI stem cell and bioengineering meeting, the Neural Stem Cell Institute’s Sally Temple talked about her group’s intriguing retinal pigmented epithelial cell (RPE) research. With the broad focus of attention in the world of RPEs mostly on those derived from either human ESC or IPSC, it was exciting to here about the
Sally Temple on adult RPEs for vision impairment, IND, & more Read More »
A lot has happened in 2014 in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field and so much of it has been good news so let’s focus on the positive. These positive developments are often the result of many years of creative, hard work by amazing teams of researchers. Here is my top 10 list of
Positive Stem Cell Developments in 2014 Read More »