News

How Unproven Stem Cell Therapies Are Costing Desperate Patients

(Texas Monthly) – On a Wednesday afternoon in September 2018, Dilley and her mother arrived at the Houston clinic and, while in the waiting room, chatted with the other patients. They learned that a few others were also from Brazoria … Read More

Oversight of ‘Right to Try’ Stem Cell Market Raises Concerns, Bioethicists Say

(S & P Global) – Already troubled by the murky oversight of the rapidly expanding U.S. direct-to-consumer marketplace of unapproved stem cell therapies, bioethicists are now raising concerns about a new pathway that at least one company is taking to … Read More

FDA Enforcement Will Foster Developments of Safe, Effective Regenerative Therapies

(Pew Research Trusts) – Knowingly or not, many clinics offering cell-based therapies may be violating federal law and regulations governing the approval of new drugs, medical devices, and biologic products. FDA has taken important steps to prompt these businesses to … Read More

A Winding Romp Through Advances in Cell Biology Pushes Readers to Ponder the Boundaries of Life

(Science) – A small bundle of human nerve cells are being cultured in a petri dish. The cells divide. They differentiate into cell types found in the brain. The cell network grows dense and develops brain-like structures—layers and folds. The … Read More

Stem Cell Research Leads to Insights into How Huntington’s Disease Develops

(Medical Xpress) – Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal hereditary disease for which there is no cure. A novel study from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, using pluripotent stem cells advances understanding of how the disease develops and may help … Read More

Scientists ‘May Have Crossed Ethical Line’ in Growing Human Brains

(The Guardian) – Neuroscientists may have crossed an “ethical rubicon” by growing lumps of human brain in the lab, and in some cases transplanting the tissue into animals, researchers warn. The creation of mini-brains or brain “organoids” has become one … Read More

Now in Development: Off-the-Shelf Stem Cells

(Knowable Magazine) – Instead, increasingly, labs around the world are seeking to design off-the-shelf cell therapies using universal donor cells that are genetically altered to avoid the many-armed responses of the immune system against foreign tissues. Scientists want to create … Read More