One of the most interesting parts of running The Niche is that I get all these questions about stem cells and related matters from readers. I try to answer questions regularly by email, but sometimes the volume catches up with me. For that reason I periodically try to do posts answering such questions, which has …
Answering reader questions: snorting stem cells, Regenexx, exosomes Read More »
My weekly roundups of biomedical news tend to focus on stem cells, but I read more broadly so it’s not just stem cells but also CAR-T cells and a lot more this week. CAR-T cells as senolytics? A team led by Scott Lowe has a new intriguing paper in Nature on using CAR-T cells to …
Weekly roundup: CAR-T cells, exosomes, trout cloning Read More »
I’m in the process of gathering data on how much people have been paying for their various stem cell and related treatments, but I’d like to hear directly from you as to what was your stem cell treatment cost. Also, how much did you pay for platelet rich plasma, also known as PRP? What about …
Take polls: your stem cell treatment cost, PRP, exosomes Read More »
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 …
Kimera Labs FDA letter cites exosomes for COVID-19, more issues Read More »
When the number of stem cell clinical studies and trials listed for COVID-19 first started spiraling upward it seemed likely that stem cell clinics and other firms in that arena would get interested. I thought that we’d see the unproven regenerative medicine coronavirus bandwagon quickly grow. Unfortunately, there are reasons to be increasingly concerned here. For instance, …
As clinics buzz about coronavirus, COVID19 patient given non-FDA-approved exosomes? Read More »
What’s Liveyon up to these days? A new, somewhat mysterious short film that serves as an advertisement for unproven exosomes has some of us scratching our heads. It seems to point to Liveyon. Can you guys as readers of The Niche help solve the puzzle of who’s behind this wild “cinematic commercial” and what the …
Mystery of wild sci-fi film ad for unproven exosomes: Liveyon? Read More »
The recent news that Texas A&M University has inked a full-blown deal with the direct-to-consumer stem cell clinic firm Celltex struck me as an unusual development. Recently we’ve seen more universities exploring the use of stem cells outside of the traditional FDA clinical trial process that is fundamentally based on an investigational new drug application (IND). Some …
Why did Texas A&M ink big deal with stem cell clinic firm Celltex on exosomes? Read More »
Is there a stem cell connection between the brain and aging? Could a type of brain stem cell or the exosomes it secretes control whole body aging? A recent big Nature article from the lab of Dongcheng Cai argues an emphatic “Yes” to these questions, at least in mice. In the Zhang, et al paper, entitled …
Review of Nature paper: stem cell exosomes on the brain and aging Read More »
What are stem cell exosomes? There’s been an explosion of interest in the biomedical world around a recently characterized cell-to-cell communication system that most cells use to talk to one another, including stem cells. In fact the first patient has been successfully treated in Germany with exosomes derived from mesenchymal stem cells for refractory graft …
What are exosomes and can they be used for therapy? Read More »
Utah appears ready to pass a new stem cell law that would explicitly allow clinical use of non-FDA-approved placental cell drug therapies in the state. Bill 199 seems likely to set up a conflict with the FDA that may land in court. The key part of the bill says: “A health care provider whose scope …