We heard this week about the encouraging news of a new CRISPR-stem cell collaboration between stem cell biotech ViaCyte and CRISPR Therapeutics. The goal of the team is to make genetically engineered pancreatic derivatives from stem cells that would have a unique immune stealthiness. If such an approach was successful, patients would not need to […]
Quick Q&A with ViaCyte CEO on CRISPR-stem cell work Read More »
What happens when one of the most exciting stem cell biotechs ViaCyte teams up with a firm like CRISPR Therapeutics to use a combination of gene editing and cell therapy? Hopefully a synergistic partnership emerges that in this case can develop an effective stem cell-based therapy for diabetes. You can see a press release on
ViaCyte & CRISPR Therapeutics team up to battle diabetes Read More »
Sometimes it seems like a bunch of stuff in one area, like with CRISPR this week, happens all of a sudden in science. A bunch of fairly high-profile gene editing pubs came out. They generated a lot of news reports. Other news in this arena popped up too, all within a few days. In vivo
CRISPR update: lots of new pubs, news, & maybe a patent finale Read More »
What do you read on the weekend? I wish for me it was at least in part some contemporary novel or science fiction, but that’s rare. More often than not it is almost all science. I do read the Sunday NY Times at least. I usually accumulate things during the week that I want to
TGIF Weekend Science Reads: stem cells, PRP, CIRM, CRISPR, & more Read More »
Remember that Shoukhrat Mitalipov lab paper on the use of CRISPR in human embryos? It’s back in the news. One of the biggest stories of 2017 centered on a Nature paper (Ma, et al., see my quick, initial review shortly after it was published here) from Mitalipov’s lab claiming both efficient repair of a disease-causing
Mitalipov rebuts CRISPR pub critiques: strengthens case, but puzzles remain Read More »
If it seems to you like dramatic cautionary tales about CRISPR accompanied by all sorts of media are coming at us more frequently, it’s not your imagination. In the latest yesterday, it was reported in a new paper led by Allan Bradley that CRISPR-Cas9 results in sometimes large-scale chromosomal lesions at or even away from the
Mulling over latest CRISPR tumult, this one from Nat Biot pub on DNA lesions Read More »
Over the weekends I try to catch up on more diverse reading and sometimes come up with a list of stuff I want to get to during this time, but I also put together weekend reads usually on Fridays as a kind of TGIF on The Niche for the wider audience here. So here’s the
TGIF weekend reads: senolytics, new CRISPR, stem cells, & 3 wacky things Read More »
Heritable CRISPR to be tried in humans sooner or later…or never? Will someone somewhere in the world try to use CRISPR gene editing or related technology to introduce heritable genetic changes into actual human beings in the next decade? I’m not talking about gene editing viable human embryos just for research which is already ongoing,
Poll: heritable CRISPR tried in humans in next 10 years? Read More »
Could potential associated cancer risks claw into CRISPR’s potential? The short answer from both previous and new data is that while CRISPR gene editing impacts the P53 pathway, which is involved in cancer along with having many other functions, this news is neither too surprising nor a fatal flaw, but some caution is warranted. CRISPR
Could Cancer Risk Claw CRISPR’s Potential? Some Balanced Perspectives Read More »
By Anna Everette The title of this article is partially borrowed from a fascinating Lightning Presentation delivered by John Doench of Broad Institute at CRISPRcon this year. In his talk, Mr. Doench pointed out how we’ve been looking up to this promising technology for a while now, hoping it will deliver the anticipated results (see
The Hope of CRISPRcon: Year 2, Guest Post by Anna Everette Read More »