Lately it seems like something called Mastodon is on the minds of many a Twitter user. There is a wave of people tweeting “let’s dump Twitter and go to Mastodon now that Musk has taken over!” However, so far I don’t see Mastodon as a solid alternative to the admittedly annoyingly musky Twitter. I do […]
What is Mastodon & why so far it’s a clunky alternative to Twitter Read More »
The recent news of Vertex Pharma buying small stem cell biotech ViaCyte and Doug Melton moving to Vertex brought to mind an old stem cell biotech called Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and its leader, stem cell biologist Dr. Robert Lanza. Years ago, big pharma firm Astellas bought ACT and Lanza moved to be a leader of regenerative
In big shift Dr. Robert Lanza exits Astellas Read More »
I’m a Star Wars fan so I go into watching new Star Wars shows like the Obi-Wan Kenobi series already wanting to like them. It’s kind of akin to being a grant reviewer and being assigned a grant to review whose focus is already a passion of yours. However, after what I would call an
Obi-Wan Kenobi series review: lots to like but many plot holes Read More »
The last six months I’ve been spending even more time than usual writing NIH grants (and a few others). The last two weeks have been especially busy on this front as I am getting an R01 renewal out the door. My paper reading lately has been mostly related to the grant writing I’m doing. Still,
Weekly reads: NIH grants, side effect of darker hair, FDA warning, CRISPR Read More »
Stem cell reviews of clinics and unproven therapies are an important relatively new part of The Niche. Data point to thousands of stem cell clinics in the U.S. selling a wide variety of supposed cell therapies. How does one evaluate such clinics? This question is on my mind regularly as so many patients ask me
Stem cell reviews: clinics, therapies, & dubious ideas Read More »
Many of you readers know tech guru Peter Diamandis for his great X PRIZE, but he’s also involved in the regenerative medicine world including a new effort called Fountain Life. Teaming up with life coach Tony Robbins and others for Fountain Life raises some red flags for me. What’s in this article Peter Diamandis and
Review of Peter Diamandis Fountain Life clinics: more than stem cell hype? Read More »
This has been one of those weeks where I spent some time thinking about taking risks in science. How much risk one should take? Risks can come in many forms. It could be at the core level at the bench doing specific experiments and not others. There’s risk in clinical trials, and even in advocacy. Sometimes
Weekly science reads: Macchiarini trial, somites, CRISPR babies Read More »
Many firms that generally fall into the category of unproven stem cell or cell therapy clinics have a way of reinventing themselves and I’ve seen this with one formerly named the Lung Institute that is now called Centers for Respiratory Health. First the Lung Institute became the Lung Health Institute. Now that firm has become
Centers for Respiratory Health is new incarnation of clinic Lung Health Institute Read More »
I’m fascinated by the idea of making food from cells grown in a lab and especially the newest idea of lab-grown chocolate. While lab-grown meat has gotten the most attention, (see my recent post on test-tube meat: Not Old MacDonald’s Farm: is the future lab-grown meat?) I’d say that the coolest application of making food from
Biotech California Cultured aims to sell lab-grown chocolate Read More »
What exactly is a mesenchymal cell and what does the acronym MSC stand for these days? I took a stab recently at discussing mesenchymal cells and the MSC acronym so check that out. There is a great need for standards on MSCs and the products out there being marketed as MSCs are probably in reality
Weekly reads: MSC, p53, EuroGCT, fake fish, K27M CAR-T Read More »