by rss feed | Jun 4, 2025 | biotechs, Cathy Tie, gene editing, How to Build a Dragon, Josie Zayner, Los Angeles Project, News Feeds
I have been reading up on something called the Los Angeles Project that involves gene editing embryos to try to make new animals. Biohacker Josie Zayner and Cathy Tie are the founders. They even have aspirations to make dragons and unicorns with CRISPR. That resonated...
by rss feed | Nov 8, 2024 | biotechs, Capricor, Deramiocel, Linda Marban, News Feeds
The cell therapy biotech Capricor recently released new data from their Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) trial work. The data have generated excitement in the patient advocacy community. The stock has skyrocketed. How exciting are these new data? CEO Linda Marbán is...
by rss feed | Nov 15, 2023 | biotechs, cell therapy companies, News Feeds, Regeneron, Vericel, Vertex Pharmaceutical
Cell therapy companies face many hurdles. I wrote recently about four cell therapy biotechs that have been really struggling. Blogging here at The Niche for more than a dozen years, I’ve seen many companies even go under. That’s bad news for the field, for...
by rss feed | Apr 16, 2023 | biotechs, Exondys 51, News Feeds, Sarepta, SRP-9001, weekly reads
The biotech Sarepta has had a complicated go of it with the FDA sometimes related to their Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene therapy efforts. In late 2016 I wrote about how there was some controversy as the FDA approved the Sarepta drug eteplirsen (Exondys 51)...
by rss feed | Jul 28, 2022 | advanced cell technology, Astellas, biotechs, News Feeds, Ocata, Robert Lanza
The recent news of Vertex Pharma buying small stem cell biotech ViaCyte and Doug Melton moving to Vertex brought to mind an old stem cell biotech called Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and its leader, stem cell biologist Dr. Robert Lanza. Years ago, big pharma firm...
by rss feed | Jul 26, 2022 | biotechs, News, News Feeds, Semma, stem cells for diabetes, Vertex, ViaCyte, VX-880
When I’m asked about the most promising areas of stem cell clinical research, cell therapy for type I diabetes is near the top including work by a biotech called ViaCyte. Other firms are in the mix too, boosting the overall odds of success in the coming decade....
