Every year I run a number of contests here on The Niche and the most recent is a stem cell video contest. I’m pleased to announce the winner of our contest is Lusubilo Mwalilino. You can see her video entry above, which is now part of our stem cell YouTube channel. Please check out […]
Congrats to Lusubilo Mwalilino, the winner of our stem cell video contest Read More »
This blog is called The Niche so publications on the stem cell niche often catch my eye even if that’s not something my own lab directly works on much. So today’s recommended reads will start with two papers on the stem cell niche. The first one focused on the niche gone wrong. The stem cell
Recommend reads: stem cell niche, Georgia & FTC on clinics, more Read More »
I recently found concerning SEC filings from the biotech Cryo-Cell about a deal it has with a Duke team for infusions of children with unproven umbilical cord cells. This turns out to be a $58 million deal. It relates in a major way to a Duke compassionate use or expanded access program (EAP) that already had raised
FDA should freeze Duke EAP & probe $58 million Cryo-Cell deal linked to it Read More »
Sometimes a paper really catches your eye like a new Cell Stem Cell pub reporting eye-like structures grown on brain organoids. The paper is Human brain organoids assemble functionally integrated bilateral optic vesicles. Let’s take a quick look at this paper, its context, and the potential big-picture implications. Brain organoids with “eyes”? At first glance,
A look at “eyes on the brain organoids” Cell Stem Cell paper Read More »
One of my main interests is the relationship between stem cells and cancer as well as what makes cancer stem cells tick. This week I’ve chosen to highlight articles on the role of stem cells in cancer plus other interesting publications. Cancer pubs related to stem cells including on cancer stem cells Identification of cancer-related
Weekly reads including MSCs & cancer stem cells 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 »
The other day I gave a talk in part about stem cell hype and mentioned as an example how the idea of already doing stem cell therapy for autism seems so misguided to me now. On the whole, in my view there are major downsides and risks for autistic kids whose parents are already having
Fact-checking stem cell therapy for autism: still a risky idea Read More »
This edition of The Niche weekly reads has a bit more good news than usual including on stem cell transplants. It’s nice to see positive developments like some recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants being able to stay at home afterwards. Also, a reminder. You have until July 31 to enter our stem cell video
The FDA grace period for stem cell clinics and others using regenerative medicine products like stem cells is over. It appears the agency is serious about enforcement moving forward. They have released several statements about the end of what they call the “enforcement discretion” period, which just means in English a grace period for marketers
Translating the FDA’s Q&A on end of stem cell grace period Read More »
How can you tell who to trust in the world of stem cell therapy? What information can a patient trust? Once upon a time about a dozen years ago it seemed a much simpler question. There were universities and biotech companies doing legit research as well as clinical trials, and there were physicians doing bone
Stem cell therapy: the good, the bad, & the muddy waters Read More »