Search Results for: cost

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya could oppose fetal tissue & some stem cell research

/ / 5 Comments
jay bhattacharya

Jay Bhattacharya just got confirmed to lead the NIH yesterday. In that role, there are reasons to think he may discourage or even stop some important research and funding. As a stem cell biologist, I’ve been looking out for indications of possible restrictions on our field’s work during the new administration. Bhattacharya’s statements signal potential […]

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya could oppose fetal tissue & some stem cell research Read More »

Weekly reads: Chinese CRISPR biotechs, cultured meat war, MSCs for Alzheimer’s

/ / 6 Comments
HuidaGene Therapeutics, Chinese CRISPR biotech

Chinese CRISPR research continues to grow and this includes interesting CRISPR biotech firms. Some here in the U.S. worry that American gene editing firms could be lagging behind. Especially over the past year, investors and even some scientists have voiced frustration. U.S. gene editing firms like Editas have been struggling for years. Its stock is

Weekly reads: Chinese CRISPR biotechs, cultured meat war, MSCs for Alzheimer’s Read More »

Weekly reads: woolly mice & pseudo-mammoths, eye repair good news, Mesoblast $1.5M price tag

/ / 1 Comment
woolly mice

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:

Weekly reads: woolly mice & pseudo-mammoths, eye repair good news, Mesoblast $1.5M price tag Read More »

RFK Jr. & claimed regenerative peptides like BPC-157

/ / 3 Comments
Bpc-157, Body Protection Compound 157

The marketing of what are loosely referred to as “regenerative peptides” including BPC-157 makes many health claims. Yet I can’t see that any have been conclusively proven to work in people. Even so, RFK Jr. claimed that the FDA was suppressing useful peptides. He mentioned this along with supposed suppression of “stem cells”. So maybe

RFK Jr. & claimed regenerative peptides like BPC-157 Read More »

Weekly reads: stem cell exhaustion, Lineage Cell trial, Iowa AG wins vs. clinics

/ / Leave a Comment
stem cells aging, stem cell exhaustion

It’s been an exhausting week for anyone who cares about the NIH and biomedical research, but in today’s weekly reads I want to talk about another kind of fatigue: stem cell exhaustion. Please subscribe to The Niche Before we get into that, I’d like to ask a favor: please subscribe to this site, The Niche.

Weekly reads: stem cell exhaustion, Lineage Cell trial, Iowa AG wins vs. clinics Read More »

What were woolly dogs and should they be de-extincted over mammoths?

/ / Leave a Comment
woolly dog

I first learned about woolly dogs when researching woolly mammoth de-extinction. It turns out that there are or were many woolly creatures besides sheep. If you have to de-extinct something, I say let’s try to bring back the woolly dog and forget the mammoths. More on that in a minute. What are woolly dogs? Woolly

What were woolly dogs and should they be de-extincted over mammoths? Read More »

FDA letters to Chara Biologics & Evolutionary Biologics continue its unprecedented slew of warnings

/ / 11 Comments
Dr. Joy Kong, Chara Biologics, Chara Health

What is Chara Biologics? Why did the FDA just warn them and another firm? FDA’s CBER keeps up fast pace of warnings Before we get into that, the FDA biologics branch, CBER, has more generally kept up an unprecedented pace of warning letters over the past 13 months. I wrote late last year how 2024

FDA letters to Chara Biologics & Evolutionary Biologics continue its unprecedented slew of warnings Read More »

Tech Bro Manifestos, AI, and the Future of Biology (& Stem Cells)

/ / 6 Comments
Tech Bro Manifestos

How seriously should we take tech bro manifestos? Also, what do the tech bros — the billionaires and centimillionaires who made their fortunes founding, running, or investing in tech companies — have to say specifically about the future of biology including regenerative medicine and stem cell research related to AI? A fair bit, as it

Tech Bro Manifestos, AI, and the Future of Biology (& Stem Cells) Read More »

Updated 2025 List of FDA-Approved Cell and Gene Therapies

/ / 7 Comments
FDA

What are the current FDA-approved cell and gene therapies? How many of those involve true stem cells? Many of us have wished for a more specific list of FDA-approved stem cell therapies. Patients and fellow scientists often asked me about such lists. They even wish for annotated lists. For that reason, I’ve made and kept

Updated 2025 List of FDA-Approved Cell and Gene Therapies Read More »

Weekly reads: stem cell therapies that work, exosomes, H3.3 K27M, Joe Rogan

/ / Leave a Comment
stem cell therapy

How close are we to having new stem cell therapies that work? The field is nearly there on several fronts, but we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Last week I noted the “soon” in a Nature News headline “Stem cells head to the clinic: treatments for cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease could soon be here.”

Weekly reads: stem cell therapies that work, exosomes, H3.3 K27M, Joe Rogan Read More »