Ever heard of woolly mice? I hadn’t either until recently. The story begins with de-extinction research. De-extinction can be both cool and arguably a colossal waste of research dollars. The specific effort to de-extinct woolly mammoths fits that dual classification. Woolly mice on the road back to mammoths? Let’s dig into this with some news: […]
In a landmark decision, today the FDA approved Ryoncil from Mesoblast for GvHD. This is the first time the FDA has approved a mescenchymal stromal/stem cell or MSC therapy of any kind. There have been many ups and downs for Mesoblast toward this approval of Ryoncil or remestemcel-L, an allogeneic marrow MSC product. See my
In landmark, FDA approves first MSC therapy, Mesoblast’s Ryoncil for GvHD Read More »
My lab is focused in part on chromatin states in stem cells and cancer including heterochromatin. In fact, my lab’s website is chromatin.com. Heterochromatin is dense, often inactive chromatin. By H&E staining and electron microscopy, heterochromatin looks dark compared to the rest of the nucleus, largely composed of euchromatin. Toward the end of my postdoc
Weekly reads: heterochromatin, H3.3, Mesoblast bump Read More »
I’ve been following 24 stem cell stocks for a few years. I haven’t invested in them or any others recently, but rather just find them interesting. How are these doing in 2023? Mostly not great. In some cases, it is downright disastrous. Let’s take a quick look at four stocks very much in the news over
Australian biotech Mesoblast has had a rollercoaster ride working toward FDA approval of its mesenchymal cell therapy product remestemcel-L. They are seeking approval for use in patients with graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). More specifically, it is intended for pediatric patients with steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease, or SR-aGVHD. This is a serious condition and new treatment
Hoping for approval, Mesoblast says FDA wants new remestemcel-L trial Read More »
Where do things stand with potential applications of CRISPR and other gene editing technologies in patients? Overall, things are looking very positive. CRISPR human trials This week the third big international human genome editing meeting took place in London. The summit addressed numerous potential clinical applications. It was good to see the agenda included quite
Weekly reads: big CRISPR mtg, Mesoblast good news, Neuralink spiked Read More »
I’ve been closely following the arena of stem cells for COVID-19 since the pandemic broke including the efforts of Mesoblast. Mesoblast unlikely to meet primary endpoints in Phase III COVID trial Now, the firm got bad news as its DSMB reported that they are unlikely to meet the primary endpoint for their Phase III trial
Mesoblast stock hit on gloomy data on stem cells for COVID-19 Read More »
The COVID-19 pandemic is tearing through the country right as we are starting into the holiday season, but the wheels of science including cell biology keep going and we keep reading all the great work. What news or papers caught your eye? Here are some of the things I have on my list of reading.
Weekend cell biology reads: Mesoblast COVID-19 deal, pubs Read More »
Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is counterintuitive In the weeks and months following a transplant, a major concern is the recipient’s immune system rejecting the “foreign” biological material. But in GVHD, the opposite happens: transplanted tissue unleashes a horde of T cells that spark a cascade of inflammation, within 100 days. Typically, GVHD follows a bone marrow
Mesoblast MSCs Quell Peds GvHD; On Road to FDA Approval? Read More »
The biotech Mesoblast is starting an expanded access study of its stem cell product for kids with a severe offshoot of COVID-19. The cellular drug in this case is remestemcel-L (more below). While most children fare better than adults in dealing with COVID-19, the rare subset of kids with COVID-19 for this study have more severe
New Mesoblast “COVID kid” stem cell study Read More »