The big news broke Friday that the FDA approved two new gene therapies for sickle cell disease. While the approvals were expected and the actual use of these treatments will be complex on several levels, this is a historic development. 2 FDA-approved gene therapies for sickle cell Friday’s news follows on recent UK approval for […]
Can you paradoxically kill yourself early by trying to cheat Death? For example, die through risky anti-aging approaches? The question came to mind because such longevity efforts have become more extreme. They also get more hype in the media. I’ve been following the anti-aging space mainly because many interventions involve risky stem cell injections. Those
Can trying to cheat death paradoxically kill you sooner? Read More »
For me, this was another week of heavy grant writing but also taking on Google again. How? Over how badly its search engine often performs on stem cell queries. I have a new piece at MedPage Today. It’s focused on the problem of Google Search promoting unproven stem cell clinic websites. Google still prefers stem
Weekly reads: Google, CIRM, young Swedish bone marrow Read More »
We all know people who seem far younger than their age, which feeds into the idea of biological age. It’s often in the news these days and all over social media. Some people who are fighting high-profile battles with aging are also doing something I call “health flexing.” I also called these folks by another
Biological age, health flexing, & stabs at rejuvenation Read More »
Epigenetic reprogramming is a term used in cell biology that is increasingly ending up in news stories too. Unfortunately, some folks, especially in the cellular rejuvenation and anti-aging space, are getting this term and other things confused. Just to start off, epigenetic reprogramming does not specifically mean cellular rejuvenation. The goal of today’s post is
Defining epigenetic reprogramming, cellular reprogramming & rejuvenation Read More »
I’ve been thinking more about the steady stream of epigenetic clock research out there. How convincing is the research on such clocks? Do they tightly relate to human biological age? The related notion of turning back such hypothetical clocks to reverse aging is exciting but controversial. It doesn’t help that some are hyping all of
Is DNA methylation destiny? Diving into new epigenetic clock research Read More »
Altos Labs is an intriguing multi-institution experiment in so-called rejuvenation research all rolled into one biotech. This relatively new entity headquartered in California has multiple Nobel laureates in the biomedical field in leadership. Even more importantly it has a large group of great researchers leading its individual research labs. This all leads to high expectations,
Some surprises from new analysis of Altos Labs papers Read More »
The Bay Area biotech Conception Bio has an intriguing name. What does “conception” mean here? Scientists can make many things from stem cells. For example, lately I’ve written a lot about stem cell-based human embryo models. Another intriguing area is called in vitro gametogenesis or IVG, where Conception Bio is a leader. IVG means making
Weekly reads: Conception Bio & IVG, MYC, Stanford Prez resigns Read More »
As we think about how much of a role belief should play in the hard sciences such as cell biology, a supposed cell type called VSEL or very-small embryonic stem cell-like cells comes to mind. For these guys it seems to me that the ratio of data to belief isn’t great. VSELs have nine lives. I
The role of belief in hard science: the VSEL case Read More »
A team led by Harvard professor David Sinclair had a recent Cell paper on reprogramming to fight aging that I reviewed here on The Niche. I thought the paper was exciting and important. Note that in vivo reprogramming was first done more than a decade ago. Sinclair did have a novel fast-forward aging method and overall
Weekly reads: oocytes from males, David Sinclair longevity inc, diabetes, He Jiankui Read More »