As long as I’ve been writing The Niche as a professor here at UC Davis School of Medicine, people have been asking me about stem cell therapy for COPD. There is a lot of misinformation out there in this space. Let’s clear things up as to where the biomedical science stands today in late 2023 […]
Stem cell therapy for COPD: challenges & hope Read More »
What if some legit place like The Mayo Clinic charged people just for the opportunity to talk to a doctor about possibly enrolling in a clinical trial? Imagine this kind of conversation. “Hey, Doc, I have this medical problem and heard you have a relevant clinical trial. Tell me about it.” Then the doctor fills
Mayo Clinic charges patients just to talk about clinical trials? 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 »
I wrote briefly a few months ago about Altos Labs. It’s a new kind of biotech institute that is focused on cellular reprogramming. Now we know much more and it’s clear this is a huge deal. What’s in this article What is Altos Labs? | Cellular rejuvenation | Reprogramming oldness | Challenges | Altos Strategies | Analysis of
All about Altos Labs and $3B cellular rejuvenation push Read More »
Is 2022 going to be any better than 2020 or 2021 when it comes to things in general or for biomedical science? Related to the pandemic? It’s too soon to say but if I had to guess right now I’d venture an optimistic view that overall it’s going to be somewhat better by the end
Weekly science reads: senescence, alt CRISPR, sickle cell update Read More »
The last few years in the stem cell and regenerative medicine arena have been complicated in many ways. Variables like surging stem cell clinics and COVID have made predictions harder. Even so, trying to make predictions is useful and it’s fun to go over past year’s predictions. You can see my scorecard on my 2021
16 predictions for stem cells & regenerative medicine in 2022 Read More »
The amount of biomedical science hype out there is mindboggling at times, but some media or other items really take the cake for being exceptionally bad. Today’s post highlights the worst of the year 2021 as the candidates for my annual The Screamers science hype award. Click on the link in the previous sentence to
We’ll begin this week’s recommended reads with some news on two wonderful stem cell scientists. While there are thousands of stem cell scientists, some stand out for their especially creative work. News on stem cell scientists Nobel laureate Yamanaka to retire as director of iPS cell center, Asahi Shimbun. Dr. Yamanaka will spend more time
Recommended reads: stem cell scientists, eggs from blood, Cryo-Cell Read More »
What if you could get 8-year grants to do whatever biomedical research you wanted? This sounds like a dream for many of us in the life sciences, but the first news item this week is all about such a potential new funding approach. The item especially caught my eye as I’m going to be doing
Weekly reads: hydra heads, iblastoids, new 8-year grants Read More »