When you are a stem cell biologist and especially if you do a blog, you sometimes run across very strange things like a chimera cat. In this case, I stumbled on the whole topic of chimeric cats because I was searching for info on chimeric rats on Google. Of course, I was. It’s kind of […]
Weekly reads: chimera cat vs. chimeric rat, cheap sequencing, more Read More »
Does aging do something to time so it seems like as you get older that time goes by faster? Remember as a little kid when summer seemed to last forever and car rides could be agonizingly long? I’ve heard two theories on this. One is that the brain’s baseline of activity slows down with aging
Weekly stem cell reads: aging & cells, iPS cell mutations, gut, more Read More »
Stem cell biologist Jacob Hanna has a new startup called Renewal Bio. Its goal is to harvest cells or tissues from human embryo or fetus models for clinical use. I believe that their commercial ambitions have so far outstripped careful thought and discussion in the broader community of researchers. There are major risks here for
‘We don’t want to freak people out’: about that Jacob Hanna human embryo model startup Read More »
This has been one of those weeks where I spent some time thinking about taking risks in science. How much risk one should take? Risks can come in many forms. It could be at the core level at the bench doing specific experiments and not others. There’s risk in clinical trials, and even in advocacy. Sometimes
Weekly science reads: Macchiarini trial, somites, CRISPR babies Read More »
It seems like the field of cell biology has mixed feelings about fibroblasts so I’m going to start off there with the recommended reads. But first, check out our stem cell YouTube channel as we are steadily heading toward 500 subscribers and 30,000 views. Please subscribe. I’ve pasted one of our top videos below, which
Weekly reads: fibroblasts, cancer stem cells, Parkinson’s Read More »
How much promise is there today for stem cell therapy for heart disease? Where do things stand with the clinical research? Patients regularly ask me these kinds of questions. The goal of today’s post is to update you on where things stand. What’s in this post Stem Cell Therapy | Clinical Trials | Delivery of
Stem cell therapy for heart disease: what you need to know Read More »
Science must go on and so must stem cell meetings in 2022 with all those great conferences out there, but hopefully this year will be better than 2020-2021. It seems that way with the pandemic easing in the U.S. and many other places. On the other hand, COVID is spiking in Asia and other regions.
Hub of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Meetings 2022 Read More »
Stem cell research relies on some unusual reagents at times including a cell culture product called Matrigel. One of the challenges with such reagents is that if they suddenly are back-ordered it could bring some research to a halt. Matrigel has been in short supply for the last year or so. These products also tend
What is Matrigel, why a shortage, & alternatives? Read More »
Not everything in biomedical science is a ground-breaking discovery or clinical game-changer, but CAR-T cell technology is a combination of both. CAR-T cell good news We have such good news in this new pub on long-term benefits: Decade-long leukaemia remissions with persistence of CD4+ CAR T cells, Nature. Another recent CAR-T cell article, this one in Science,
Weekly reads: CAR-T cell good news, Califf fight, stem cells on lymph Read More »
When we hear the word senile we might think stereotypically of an older person who has cognitive impairment, but some argue that senility can apply to cells too as they age and that such cells can be targeted by drugs called senolytics. Unfortunately, the supplements industry has picked up on this idea to sell iffy
Recommended reads: senolytics, cow iPS cells, big CIRM royalty Read More »