Search Results for: weekly reads

Weekly reads: stem cell good news, bad news on sickle cell, MS, IPSCs

January 7, 2023 / By / 1 Comment
victoria gray family crispr sickle cell b

Let’s start with some stem cell good news on evolving approaches to treat sickle cell disease involving stem cells. Then on another related front things were more concerning. Stem cell good news on sickle cell disease, a complication Sickle Cell Disease News reports Adding Briquilimab Boosts Success of Sickle Cell Stem Cell Transplant. This is a …

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Weekly reads: CRISPR chicks, HSCs, sequencing Mendel

December 31, 2022 / By / 1 Comment
CRISPR chicks

I tend to perhaps over-focus on human CRISPR or gene editing, but other applications including in agriculture are definitely going to be huge. CRISPR in agriculture One that I’ve been following for a long time is the use of CRISPR to prevent cows from growing horns. Why is that a big deal? Just in the …

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Weekly reads: Kevin McCormack passes, HSCs & RXR, Ethics

December 17, 2022 / By / 3 Comments
Kevin McCormack, Paul Knoepfler, stem cell research

Out of the blue this past week we lost Kevin McCormack of CIRM to a heart attack. When I first heard, my reaction was that can’t be, but it is. About Kevin McCormack If you aren’t familiar with him, Kevin was officially Director of Patient Advocacy at our state’s Stem Cell Agency. However, he was …

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Weekly reads: Marc Tessier-Lavigne probe, Neuralink on the brain, Ras unchained

December 3, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
Marc Tessier-Lavigne

We’ll start with a story related to possible research misconduct, Stanford’s President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and Science Magazine.  In some ways the news on Science itself could be the bigger long-term story. Marc Tessier-Lavigne pub investigation, Science oops moment Here’s some of the coverage: Stanford investigates potential misconduct in president’s research, Science. Multiple publications of Marc Tessier-Lavigne …

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Weekly reads: Gamida Cell, Siddhartha Mukherjee, CRISPR in viruses

November 26, 2022 / By / 1 Comment
Abigail L. Jenkins, Gamida Cell

Hematopoietic stem cells have many clinical applications and a company called Gamida Cell has an interesting product in this area called Omidubicel that may have several applications.  I’m going to start the weekly reads with news there. Gamida Cell and the FDA A recent piece discussed how Omidubicel is progressing with the FDA. FDA extends …

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Weekly reads: NurOwn, key gene screen, MS, Croce mess

November 13, 2022 / By / 3 Comments
Nurown BrainStorm

I get a lot of questions about stem cells for ALS and more recently people have been specifically interested in NurOwn from BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics. Recently, the FDA denied BrainStorm’s request for a BLA for NurOwn. The company felt its Phase III trial was encouraging. It sounds like they will move forward with a follow-up …

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Weekly reads: death in CRISPR trial, sickle cell, nose picking & dementia, epilepsy

November 5, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
CRISPR gene editing

As both a scientist who works on stem cells, cancer, and CRISPR, and a research advocate I’ve been fortunate to meet many patient advocates over the years. Some have been participants in clinical trials themselves. Benefits & risks of clinical trial participation It is very sobering to find out that a clinical trial participant has …

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Weekly reads: KRAS G12C, eLife journal controversy, bird iPSCs

October 29, 2022 / By / 2 Comments
KRAS mutations, KRAS G12C

If you’ve never heard of the KRAS G12C mutation, it’s a particularly frightening mutation present in numerous cancers. Like the MYC oncogene, many people view mutations in RAS as undruggable, but new efforts show some glimmers of hope. The drug Sotorasib has been approved by the FDA to target the KRAS G12C mutation. Here’s a …

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Weekly reads: NAM dubs 3 stem cell researchers, kick the 2 buckets, stem cell homing

October 22, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
Sally Temple, stem cell researchers

The National Academy of Medicine elected a cohort of new members including three stem cell researchers. It’s great to see our field and these great scientists get recognition. The new NAM stem cell researchers include Sally Temple, Connie Eaves, and Tippie MacKenzie. Here’s a little bit about each of them. Dr. Temple is a stem cell biologist …

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Weekly reads: chimera cat vs. chimeric rat, cheap sequencing, more

November 16, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
Venus, cat chimera

When you are a stem cell biologist and especially if you do a blog, you sometimes run across very strange things like a chimera cat. In this case, I stumbled on the whole topic of chimeric cats because I was searching for info on chimeric rats on Google. Of course, I was. It’s kind of …

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