Readers of The Niche have asked me many questions about stem cells for autoimmune disease but the puzzle of why women get these conditions more often than men hasn’t come up before here. For instance, why is MS so much more common in women than men? It’s remained somewhat of a mystery over the years. […]
Many avenues are being pursued to get stem cell therapy to the clinic for eye conditions. These different approaches employ a variety of stem cell types. In some cases, such as with iPS cells, the stem cells themselves are not transplanted. Instead, the iPS cells are used to make differentiated eye cells, such as RPE
Weekly reads: stem cell therapy for eyes research, DMD, cheating death, cancer sensors Read More »
From the beginning of the pandemic, I have been mostly skeptical about the idea of cell therapy for COVID including stem cell therapies. However, at the same time, I’ve closely followed the data, especially up until 2022. Now having just had a nasty bout with COVID myself for the first time this summer, I recently
Update on stem cells & cell therapy for COVID trials Read More »
Today’s post takes a close look at the exosome manufacturer Kimera Labs in the context of the main exosome companies. What are exosomes? Exosomes are microscopic bubbles or vesicles produced by cells. Exosomes contain many cellular substances that are biologically active. Some of these materials may be helpful clinically, while others could pose risks. Clinical outcomes
Review of where Kimera Labs fits into sphere of exosome companies Read More »
Occasionally when I write a post there is an angry reaction to it in the blog comments, which was the case for my recent fact-check of the LifeWave X39 patches. As you can see in that post, I didn’t find convincing data to either back up the claimed stem cell connection. In my opinion, there
Weekly reads: bat stem cells & viruses, Lineage Cell, He Jiankui visa Read More »
What is the cell therapy for ALS called NurOwn? How strong is its potential as a treatment for ALS? I’ve been following the biotech BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics for many years. Patients keep asking me about NurOwn ALS prospects. They’re looking for hope. Today’s post is a close look at NurOwn and at BrainStorm as a
Does NurOwn from BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics still provide hope for ALS? Read More »
Toward the end of each year, I make stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions for the coming year. It’s a fun tradition here on The Niche that goes way back. The stem cell field has changed dramatically as reflected in each year’s predictions. Here’s a list of past predictions with my grades of how they
2023 stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions Read More »
It’s that time of year again when I grade my previous year’s predictions for the stem cell & regenerative medicine space. Overall, I did better than a typical year. I give the 2022 predictions an A- overall. This exercise can be kind of fun but also humbling. For example, I tend to be too optimistic
Grading my 2022 regenerative medicine predictions Read More »
I wrote recently about how political pressure on FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in 2020 may have helped the Texas firm Direct Biologics move their product ExoFlo forward inside the agency. Today I analyze the ExoFlo Phase I clinical trial paper used in that push on Hahn to get the firm the IND for a Phase II
Review of ExoFlo paper used to push Direct Biologics IND inside FDA finds red flags Read More »
An FDA FOIA dump of text messages of former Commissioner Stephen Hahn suggests that a Texas regenerative firm called Direct Biologics benefited from political pressure on him in mid-2020. Then he was asked again to help in early 2021. This was shortly before he resigned at the start of the Biden Administration. The push came from
FDA leader Stephen Hahn was pressured to aid Texas firm Direct Biologics Read More »