Search Results for: covid-19

Weekly reads: organoids, COVID-19, CIRM & cool new pubs

Human-intestinal-organoids-infected-with-SARS-CoV-2-white.-Credit-Joep-BeumerClevers-groupHubrecht-Institute

Organoids are providing a novel avenue into the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and novel models for drug screening. A number of new preprints on respiratory organoids shed new light in this area. They were highlighted in a Nature newsy piece, Mini organs reveal how the coronavirus ravages the body. It’s a challenge to study COVID-19 infections because just infecting …

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Research lab ramp-up plan & real-world tips to lower COVID-19 risk

elephant-in-the-lab-covid-19-lab-ramp-up

My lab and I are fortunate that in our Sacramento-Davis area there are relatively few COVID-19 cases, but what kind of COVID-19 risk mitigation plan should one use for a careful lab ramp-up plan? COVID-19 shouldn’t be the “elephant in the lab”, but should be discussed openly. Communication is probably one key to optimal ramp-up. …

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Update on stem cells for COVID-19, Surgisphere scandal

Stem-cells-for-COVID-19-Maryland

The term Regenerative Medicine covers so much biomedical science these days including everything from just about any kind of cell therapy (not just stem cells) to CRISPR gene editing, and with the the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems this umbrella use of the term now includes potential treatment of viral illnesses. It can be hard to …

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Field throws stem cells for COVID-19 like spaghetti on the wall

Hype

The idea of testing stem cells for COVID-19 may be music to the ears of some folks as an opportunity, but to me from the beginning it sounded mostly like a spaghetti on the wall road to trouble. There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with …

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COVID-19 cellular medicine buzz: Mesoblast, FTC hammer, more

cell therapy for COVID

  It’s been a busy week for the cellular and regenerative medicine space for COVID-19 news with some possible ups including for Mesoblast and some definite downs. Starting with the more positive media buzz with have Mesoblast. Mesoblast made COVID19 news “Thinly traded Mesoblast Limited (NASDAQ:MESO) rockets 51% premarket on average volume in reaction to its announcement of an …

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Kimera Labs FDA letter cites exosomes for COVID-19, more issues

Duncan-Ross

A firm called Kimera labs just received an untitled letter from the FDA. The firm has been supplying non-FDA-approved exosomes to various customers including at least one stem cell clinic without sparking any obvious action from the agency, but on April 10th that changed with the letter, which in my view is quite serious. What …

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Cell therapy trials for COVID-19 accelerate & some early reports

MultiStem-Athersys-cell-therapy-COVID-19

Could various kinds of cell therapy help patients with COVID-19? A variety of cell therapies, mostly focused on mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs), have gotten cleared quickly in the U.S., China, and Israel and possibly other countries to be tested in patients with the novel coronavirus. I hope at least one proves helpful. It’s mostly a …

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Who IS this!? Surprising phone survey of stem cell clinics on their COVID-19 pandemic status

iPhone-stem-cell-clinics-pandemic

It’s not every day that I call a bunch of stem cell clinics to say “hi”, but yesterday I called some of them during a needed lunch break from grant writing to see what they were doing about their operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impetus for this survey of a sort was a question …

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Interview with Sean Morrison on cellular therapies for COVID-19

Sean-Morrison

To get at addressing what’s the real deal on the idea of cellular therapies for COVID-19, I did a short email Q&A interview with Dr. Sean Morrison. Sean is Chair of the Public Policy Committee at ISSCR and Director of Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern. He was also President of ISSCR in 2015-2016, and …

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Deconstructing Rudy Giuliani ‘stem cells for COVID-19’ podcast & NK cell transplant idea

Robert-Hariri-talking-with-Rudy-Giuliani-on-testing-22stem-cells22-for-COVID19.

Rudy Giuliani has been tweeting all kinds of wild things about the novel coronavirus and is apparently very excited about the idea of “stem cells” for COVID-19 patients. What could go wrong, right? Giuliani starts vaguely tweeting about “stem cells” I wrote a few days ago about how Giuliani had been plugging an upcoming podcast …

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