NEWS and OPINIONS
Cell and gene therapy is coming of age
By Center for Breakthrough Medicine - BIOPHARMADIVE The enormous impact the pandemic had on the biopharma industry is unmistakable, as evidenced by the unprecedented investments that took place in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) space. In January 2022, the Milken...
Grow-your-own stem cells may repair Parkinson’s damage
By Bronwyn Thompson - New Atlas A new stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease is one step closer to human trials after scientists were able to successfully rebuild neural damage in an animal model. Researchers from Scripps Research and Cardiff University used...
Researchers turn to CRISPR to unlock one of the trickiest diseases to treat: Alzheimer’s
By Andrew Joseph - Stat News When the genome-editing tool CRISPR is thought of as a potential medicine, the targets that first come to mind are diseases like sickle cell or other conditions caused by particular mutations. Use CRISPR to fix that mutation, the idea...
The next genomics wave: The powerful era of single-cell genomics
By The Harvard Gazette For more than 20 years, scientists have been able to unravel the sequence of the human genome, the precise recipe of everyone’s DNA. That has led to incredible advances in discovering genes responsible for countless diseases. But within the last...
Researchers visualize activity of CRISPR genetic scissors in real time
by Leipzig University - Phys.org When bacteria are attacked by a virus, they can defend themselves with a mechanism that fends off the genetic material introduced by the intruder. The key is CRISPR-Cas protein complexes. It is only in the last decade that their...
Making Genetically Engineered Stem Cells Viable
Growing and selection are crucial. by Josh Conway - Lifespan.io CRISPR is still imperfect While the accuracy of genetic modification through the well-known CRISPR/Cas9 system continues to improve, the technology remains imperfect. Small mistakes were initially...
Stem Cell Medical Tourism Leads to Meningitis in MS Patient
— Difficult infection took weeks to identify; doctors warn about unproven treatments by Sophie Putka - MedPage Today A woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) who had intrathecal injections of umbilical cord stem cells in Mexico ended up with a severe Mycobacterium...
CAR T Cells Derived From Stem Cells Open Door To Universal Donor Cell Lines
by William A. Haseltine - Forbes Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), a continuing muse in cell therapy research, could potentially be used to improve flaws associated with conventional CAR T therapy. What if an effective cancer treatment became cheaper and easier...
$3M grant allows milestone in regenerative medicine using blood vessels
By Izzy Wood - Drug Target Review US researchers combine revascularisation techniques to allow new blood vessels to rapidly form in an architecturally organised manner. The ability to regenerate and pattern blood vessels remains an elusive milestone in regenerative...
Stem Cell Model Points to Alzheimer’s Disease Embryonic Origins
By Genetic and Engineering News Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. However, the exact cause of AD remains unknown. Existing approved treatments for AD are designed to target the already existing AD neuropathology,...
A Fast, Effective Way to Detect Cancer Stem Cells
By McMaster University McMaster researchers have uncovered a fast and effective way to detect cancer stem cells before the disease recurs in adults who previously underwent treatment. Mick Bhatia, a professor in the department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences,...
Cancer breakthrough uses CRISPR to target extra chromosomes
By Michael Irving - New Atlas Yale scientists have discovered a new potential treatment avenue to fight cancer. Using CRISPR gene-editing, the team eliminated extra chromosomes from cancer cells and found that they could no longer grow out of control. Healthy human...