As many of you know I am a cancer survivor myself so studying cancer stem cells has meaning for me on another level. Cancer is also the possible side effect most patients worry about when considering going to an unproven stem cell clinic. I’ve got a new video up on possible stem cell side effects […]
Weekly reads: cancer stem cells, Bik, & more Read More »
This week marked the release of new draft FDA guidance on cell and gene therapies. Is the FDA kind of like the guidance counselor at school or more like the principal? It probably depends on many factors. I also find it funny how pretty much everyone in academia and biotech industry works to be compliant
Weekly reads: New FDA guidance, brains, MSCs, senescence Read More »
The news of the week relates to an interim clinical trial report from gene-editing firm Editas on its CRISPR trial for a form of vision loss. On to that in a minute. What have you been reading the past week? Below, I include our weekly list of recommended reads. However, first I wanted to give
The Niche weekend reads: Editas mess, The Niche updates, papers Read More »
I’ve been busy recently focusing more on grant and paper writing than reading papers on stem cells, but my piece on trying to de-extinct mammoths via cloning-like methods drew strong opinions on both sides. Recent news and resources on stem cells We’re still awaiting a verdict in the big California federal court case where the FDA is
Weekly reads: news, legos for stem cells, FDA, cancer, more Read More »
I’ve been following the research related to human cloning now for more than a decade. Is human cloning more possible at this point? How do we even define such cloning? Did you know there are two types? The goal of this post is to educate you and in the process answer such questions. What’s in
Human cloning is more likely now but would you take the big risks? Read More »
Because of blogging here on The Niche and people giving me tips I often can see trends before they fully surface and a troubling new one is intranasal stem cell delivery by unproven clinics. Over the past year I have heard of many clinics now offering this approach. I’ve seen this in marketing and heard
Clinics turning to potentially dangerous intranasal stem cell delivery Read More »
Who doesn’t like stem cell videos? Some of you already know that we have a stem cell YouTube channel with me, Paul Knoepfler, talking about many important topics on stem cells. The point of the channel is science-based educational outreach to people all over the world. With this in mind, I’ve been thinking it’d be
Enter The Niche stem cell videos contest with $100 prize Read More »
The paper of the week is An isoform of Dicer protects mammalian stem cells against multiple RNA viruses published in Science. The take-home from the abstract is that the data, “demonstrate that mammalian stem cells can protect themselves from some RNA viruses by expressing an alternatively spliced isoform of the enzyme Dicer called aviD, which potentiates
For more than a year in my first job as a scientist I isolated cells from umbilical cord veins and then tossed the tissue away, never realizing there was more there that could be useful in the form of something called Wharton’s jelly. What’s in this article Umbilical cord histology & Wharton’s jelly | What
What is Wharton’s jelly & its possible clinical uses? Read More »
ViaCyte released encouraging data just now on a patient with implanted stem cell-derived pancreas-like device whose diabetes improved. You can read more about this in the Endpoints piece that I linked to in the previous sentence. Stem cells for diabetes; the ViaCyte update The idea of stem cells for diabetes has been more on my
Quick reaction to milestone ViaCyte data on a diabetes patient Read More »