How bad could things get with RFK Jr. changing the FDA’s approach to unproven stem cells? I’ve been asking myself this for months since Kennedy’s post that mentioned stem cells on X. New developments suggest things will get much worse. Up until about a week or two ago, my feeling has been that things could […]
“Very scary”: Per Marks, RFK Jr. aiming for weaker regs on unproven stem cells Read More »
Chinese CRISPR research continues to grow and this includes interesting CRISPR biotech firms. Some here in the U.S. worry that American gene editing firms could be lagging behind. Especially over the past year, investors and even some scientists have voiced frustration. U.S. gene editing firms like Editas have been struggling for years. Its stock is
Weekly reads: Chinese CRISPR biotechs, cultured meat war, MSCs for Alzheimer’s Read More »
The Japanese stem cell and regenerative medicine oversight system is different than here in the U.S. and in Europe. Japan has had a more permissive approach to overseeing regenerative medicine. While most of the attention has focused on fairly legitimate regenerative biotechs and other sponsors in Japan, there are unproven stem cell clinics there. These
Japanese stem cell clinic oversight: the case of MSC clinic Seijikai Fukuoka Read More »
I had a feeling late last year that I’d frequently be writing about RFK Jr. and his impact on the FDA. However, I didn’t realize some of that would be writing for STAT News. As I mentioned a few days ago, I now have a new regular column over there. I thought the column would
Weekly reads: RFK Jr. stem cell summit, FDA OKs eye cell therapy, cartilage repair Read More »
There is growing interest in a possible new reproductive method based on something called in vitro gametogenesis or IVG. Today’s post explains IVG including its potential pros and cons. I also discuss why its possible combination with gene editing is so potentially fraught, which is a big potential con. Let’s start with an explanation of this
In all the time I’ve been a scientist I never worried about American science until the last month. Even during the first Trump administration, while there were challenges, I felt like things would generally be okay. Research continued. One of my daughters and I went to the Science March in 2017 in Sacramento. We bumped
Weekly reads: blowtorch to American science, stem cells for teeth & stroke Read More »
It’s been an exhausting week for anyone who cares about the NIH and biomedical research, but in today’s weekly reads I want to talk about another kind of fatigue: stem cell exhaustion. Please subscribe to The Niche Before we get into that, I’d like to ask a favor: please subscribe to this site, The Niche.
Weekly reads: stem cell exhaustion, Lineage Cell trial, Iowa AG wins vs. clinics Read More »
If you tell a scientist that they should be growing a spine, they might take you literally. For instance, if you say this because you want a scientist to show some courage and speak out about something difficult, instead they might try to make an actual human spine in a lab. We’ll start there this
Weekly reads: grow a spine, China clears MSCs, Denise Richards, stem cell soups Read More »
Did you predict the major events in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field this year? I tried and today’s post are the grades on my predictions. Prediction is a key part of being a scientist even if we may not think about it that much. For instance, we have to try to predict what
Grading my 20 stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions for 2024 Read More »
Do our aging cells necessitate that we age overall as people? Flipping it around, if we can stop or reverse enough cellular aging, will our overall aging be positively affected? It’s clear that people age very differently from each other and so do our cells and organs. Interestingly, intramurally in a sense the cells and
Weekly reads: aging cells, scientists relying on ChatGPT, anemone stem cells Read More »