Search Results for: stem cell therapy

FDA warns Joseph Mercola on COVID-19 claims

joseph mercola and unproven stem cells

Those of you following the arena of unproven stem cells might recognize the name Dr. Joseph Mercola. He’s a promoter of alternative medicine. Over the years his name has also popped related to the marketing of unproven stem cell offerings in various ways. Now the FDA has warned Joseph Mercola on what it says are unapproved …

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Regenerative reads: brain organoids, Clinicaltrials.gov change

brain organoids sm

Sometimes change takes a very long time, but with brain organoids or advocating for better information for patients at Clinicaltrials.gov, after waiting you can see some interesting developments.  These are two of the regenerative medicine stories of the week, along with some striking research papers. Clinicaltrials.gov Some of us have been advocating for improvements at …

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The Niche reads: COVID, new INDs, clinic suits, papers

duan et al current biology 2021 fig 1b, The Niche recommended reads

Here are my recommended weekly reads for The Niche readership for early February 2021 including COVID-19 and stem cell lawsuit updates, papers, and more. How many papers do you end up reading each week or month these days? More or less than before the pandemic? COVID-19 updates New diabetes cases linked to covid-19, WaPo  ICYMI …

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How much does platelet rich plasma or PRP injection cost? Is it a good option?

prp cost polling data, platelet rich plasma

How much does platelet rich plasma or PRP injection cost? We might start by first talking about how to define PRP. PRP is an extract from blood enriched for platelet growth factors. There are many ways of making PRP and products are very heterogeneous. Some preps may contain actual platelets or fragments of platelets. These …

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Recommended reads: jobs, FDA letter, & The Niche new look

the body building fda letter the niche

During the week as I’m doing other stuff I keep my eyes open for interesting things to read, including over the weekend about stem cell research, COVID, CRISPR, and more for The Niche weekly recommended reads. This week a lot was going as we updated The Niche site to our new theme and format. I …

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What is a teratoma tumor? Research & treatment

What is a teratoma? human stem cell teratoma knoepfler lab sm

Sometimes on The Niche or while teaching students as a professor here at UC Davis School of Medicine, I’ve been asked: What is a teratoma? Not all tumors are created equal and some like teratomas are particularly unusual. Exactly what is a teratoma tumor? Teratomas are germ cell tumors. What this means is that the …

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Weekly reads & paper of the week: gene-editing vs. aging

koblan et al 2020 nature gene editing progeria

The paper of the week reports using base-editing, a kind of gene-editing, to reverse mutations associated with rapid aging syndromes, generally called progeria, but there are a lot of other interesting pubs to recommend for reading this week. I go over it all in this post. Gene-editing to fight premature aging syndromes In vivo base …

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Medical Advisory Board for The Niche

Niche-news-image, medical advisory board

The Niche has formed a Medical Advisory Board. Why? Because of the array of translational and medical potential related to stem cells and regenerative medicine. Also, because since so many readers of The Niche are patients curious about potential stem cell treatments. Such a medical board that also has bioethics expertise is more important than …

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Prop 14 California: Big Expectations for CIRM 3.0

cirm prop 14 california millan allday knoepfler

Approval of Prop 14 California last month to renew CIRM was one of the biggest state election developments of 2020. Yet it didn’t get much news coverage somehow. The exception is David Jensen over at California Stem Cell Report, who has been a great source of information about the various news surrounding Prop 14 and …

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Recommended regenerative medicine reads: making eggs, retraction, freezing, more

hamazaki et al nature fig 2b induction of oocytes from es cells

What to read when there are almost an endless number of stem cell and regenerative medicine pubs? Here are some suggestions including what I would say is a very unusual Nature paper on making egg cells from stem cells. If this could be done safely with human cells all the way to functional eggs, would …

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