One of my favorite types of papers are those on stem cells and chromatin, and a new one in Current Biology caught my eye this week. My own lab website has the URL chromatin.com so that says something. You can also read more about our research here. Recommended reads: chromatin and stem cells, more Asymmetric […]
Weekly recommended reads including asymmetric division & chromatin 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 »
Could stem cell Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research provide a potential path to future treatment or preventative measures? The goal of today’s post is to provide a review of the state of the field in this area including possible approaches and challenges. You can watch a video covering the topic by Dr. Paul Knoepfler below on
Stem cell Alzheimer’s disease research Read More »
A few years ago a promotional website called Bioinformant popped up in the stem cell arena. It’s very different in some ways than most other stem cell-related websites that I’ve seen. It’s a marketing and promotion site. What’s the backstory? I believe there’s reason for concern here specifically related to Bioinformant promoting unproven stem cell
Review of Bioinformant, unproven stem cell clinic promotion, NIH & Pfizer as clients? Read More »
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 »
The International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy or ISCT held a really interesting webinar yesterday on the FDA and unproven stem cell clinics. It was focused on the expiration of the FDA’s discretionary period on unproven stem cell clinics. What will the FDA do now? The webinar included some ideas and also quite a
New data on stem cell clinics, INDs, & more including from FDA itself Read More »
Something called the 14-day rule on growing human embryos in the lab helped keep a tough question in check for a long time: when is it ethically wrong or just practically unwise to continue growing a human embryo for research? There is no good answer based on science or anything else. ISSCR moves beyond strict
Risks rise as ISSCR drops strict 14-day rule on human embryo growth in the lab Read More »