√ Shot To The Heart: Jj Punts On Capricor Its Cardiac Stem Cell Program

Capricor logo from website

How is the stem cell and regenerative medicine biotech sector doing these days and does recent news about specific biotechs such as Capricor suggest issues for the sector more broadly?

Capricor had bad news earlier this year related to its stem cells for heart disease kegiatan and things just took a turn for the worse this week as pharma giant J&J severed ties with the small California company (here and here).

Capricor, which has received more than $17 million in CIRM grant funding, could have potentially received hundreds of millions from J&J if the deal had remained intact and if it had met key future milestones.

CEO Linda Marbán, pictured at right, reportedly emphasized the theoretical upside to this development:

“Capricor’s CEO Linda Marbán, Ph.D. accentuated the positive of claiming full rights to CAP-1002, including not only the DMD data but also work with Janssen on developing a commercial-scale manufacturing process for the cell therapy, to which it now has a “fully paid-up nonexclusive license.”

She also said it settled “uncertainty concerning the scope of the license for CAP-1002″ and frees the company to seek partners elsewhere.”

Linda Marban, CEO Capricor

However, this is frankly terrible news for the company. It’s not a plus for CIRM either, which declined to comment when I asked them about it. While the planned new Capricor trial for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is interesting, it’s a long haul ahead on that front for the company. I reported earlier this year on CIRM’s enthusiasm for Capricor’s DMD trial.

This all leaves me wondering whether in general the use of stem cells for some kind of heart disease will eventually be proven as a new form of cardiac medicine. I hope so. The two articles I cited above about this Capricor and J&J development go much further in their interpretation as they make the argument that the stem cell biotech sector overall is in bad shape and in addition assert that big pharma is losing interest. While that seems overly grim to me, at this moment in time things aren’t exactly very upbeat either in general with a few exceptions.

What stem cell biotech companies in the cardiac area seem most promising to you? What about stem cell biotechs more generally?

Disclosure: I have no financial interests in stem cell biotechs at present.

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√ Cool Stem Cell Papers: Antibody Reprogramming, Organoids, Gravity, More

Gut organoid, picture from JAMA

The past few weeks have brought some exciting, thought-provoking stem cell papers and developments in the regenerative medicine field.

Here’s a list of stem cell papers in the media that struck me as particularly cool along with some other developments in the field.

Human Stem Cells Fight Parkinson’s Disease in Monkeys

Organoids Reveal Clues to Gut-Brain Communication (see image)

Stimulation of 3D osteogenesis by mesenchymal stem cells using a nanovibrational bioreactor

Health Canada investigates Canadian stem cell clinics

Stem cells: Japan’s scientific ‘moonshot’ – Financial Times

UCLA Launches First-of-Its-Kind Stem Cell Trial to Combat Cancer

Antibody-created stem cells may have superior properties

Researchers Turn Skin Cells into Motor Neurons Without Using Stem Cells

California Stem Cell Report has several recent pieces on the future of CIRM

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√ Top Tgif Stem Cell Weekend Reads Of Papers News

Modified Wikipedia image

Bulls-eye! Here are some stem cell weekend reads including both interesting new papers & news headlines.

Of course, this week also had stem cell awareness day and I wrote about 10 key issues for the field for the coming 10 years!

Weekend reads

Papers

• Chromatin and Single-Cell RNA-Seq Profiling Reveal Dynamic Signaling and Metabolic Transitions during Human 


• A simple and versatile system for the ATP-dependent assembly of chromatin


• Genetic Evolution of Glioblastoma Stem‐like Cells from Primary to Recurrent Tumor


• MYC Controls Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Fate Decisions through Regulation of Metabolic Flux


• Targeting neuronal activity-regulated neuroligin-3 dependency in high-grade glioma


• Gene Editing in Rat Embryonic Stem Cells to Produce In VitroModels and In Vivo Reporters


• The Elongation Factor Spt6 Maintains ESC Pluripotency by Controlling Super-Enhancers and Counteracting Polycomb Proteins

News

• Stem cell baldness cure? USC stem cell scientists developing a new cure-all for baldness


• Most versatile ever?! Most versatile stem cell ever may help us understand miscarriage


• Paolo Macchiarini dodges a bullet. Sweden won’t prosecute Italian stem cell scientist


• This thing’s name is kinda cringy Scientists create ‘tooth cracker’ device to harvest stem cells


• You got guts kid. Scientists used human stem cells to build a new rat intestine


• Indian government bans some stem cell banking. Govt bans commercial banking of stem cells

Did I miss any of your stem cell weekend reads? Let us know in the comments.

Sumber aciknadzirah.blogspot.com

√ Divots Fly From Cnn Puff Piece On Jack Nicklaus Unproven Stem Cells

This past week’s coverage of unproven stem cells exhibited a wide range both in tone and in topics including golfer Jack Nicklaus.

There were the three critical articles on clinics that I blogged about earlier and then there was a CNN puff piece by Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Roni Selig mostly focused on Nicklaus.

Note that “unproven” is not necessarily a bad word or pejorative adjective for stem cells as pretty much everything in clinical trials is still unproven, but if unproven stem cells are oversold or literally sold to patients for money, then things can get messy.

The CNN piece isn’t about stem cell clinics selling unproven offerings, but it still has its issues.

There is also video (see screenshot) of Gupta talking to Nicklaus at the meeting.

What’s my beef with this article?

The CNN piece had nearly zero balance. It did not discuss the challenging issues out there and failed to mention recent cases where patients have clearly been harmed by unproven stem cells such as being blinded. It’s important context given that some people will probably read the piece on Nicklaus and if they have their own golf issues or other orthopedic problems, they may go to a risky clinic too. This reminds me of the press coverage of the unproven offerings that other sports celebs and former stars have gotten: Gordie Howe, Boris Becker, and others.

The CNN piece was more a stem cell ‘feel good’ item than a real, carefully researched or well thought-out medical piece. In that way it was more hype than substance. This quote from the piece is not only awkward, but also seems intent on claiming the upbeat outcome of research in this area before it is done:

“The evidence to support Alt’s claims are still in progress, and further proof is expected from an FDA approved clinical trial at Sanford Health in the US.”

Proof is expected?

“Alt” here refers to Dr. Eckhard Alt, a German stem cell researcher offering stem cells to patients like Nicklaus. Alt and Sanford health appear to be working together on some stem cell research efforts.

Note that Sanford Health is conducting FDA-approved stem cell trials here in the U.S. so that is definitely a positive. It doesn’t mean these stem cell investigational therapies will turn out to be safe or effective, but at least Sanford is doing IND-based trials.

In the bigger picture, there’s nothing wrong with optimism or even looking for good news, but one should keep it balanced. Pieces like this CNN one are generally more harmful than helpful to the stem cell field and patients.

Also, I can’t help but wonder if the Vatican conference had its own religious kegiatan to promote supposed 4dukt stem cell success stories no matter what and perhaps that permeated into the CNN piece, which again should have been objective biomedical journalism.

On a different note, I wish Jack Nicklaus the best.

Sumber aciknadzirah.blogspot.com

√ Recent Stem Cell Pubs News: Reprogramming, Chromatin, Single-Cell, Astellas, More

Screenshot from news article in Yomirui Shimbun on IPS cell-based organ production in pigs.

What new papers and news in the stem cell sphere caught your eye? Here are some recent items that seem notable to me.

• Diabetes relief in mice by glucose-sensing insulin-secreting human α-cells. This paper reports cellular reprogramming to insulin-producing cells in mice. They reprogrammed α-cells with Pdx1 and MafA proteins.


• ‘Mitophagy inhibits amyloid-β and tau pathology and reverses cognitive deficits in models of Alzheimer’s disease’ in Nature Neuroscience. Using IPS cells for insights.


• “What open chromatin features predict pluripotency?” asked and answered by the authors of this review in Developmental Cell: Open Chromatin, Epigenetic Plasticity, and Nuclear Organization in Pluripotency.


• Over at the journal Stem Cells, this piece highlights the utility of single cell approaches. Single‐Cell Transcriptomics of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Reveal Age‐Related Cellular Subpopulation Depletion and Impaired Regenerative Function.


• Over at the CIRM Blog student Pallavi Penumetcha has a nice piece on new, partially CIRM-supported research on a cool model of human oligodendrocyte maturation.


• Commenter Bill points out two signs of progress with Astellas’ regenerative medicine efforts led by Bob Lanza (formerly Ocata/ACT’s regenerative medicine clinical pipeline.


• David Jensen over at his blog California Stem Cell Report has news of a new bill working toward a stricter California state law on stem cell clinics.


• Researchers to use iPS cells to make human pancreases inside pigs. See image above from newspaper article.

Sumber aciknadzirah.blogspot.com