#athersys

Overselling stem cells for COVID-19: WSJ article & UMN PR

Many are  jumping on the bandwagon of trying stem cells for COVID-19 or testing other cellular therapies for the novel coronavirus disease, but there have been problems with either the rationales for the trials themselves or more often with how they portrayed. Sometimes there has even been outright hype.

I’ve called this collective trend of promotion of scads of trials of cell therapies for COVID…

BARDA drops funding of stem cells for COVID-19

Katie Thomas at the New York Times reports that BARDA has dropped considering funding applications for stem cells for COVID-19. The move is part of a larger shift in funding priorities away from lung treatments and toward vaccine development. The decision has puzzled and even angered some stem cell firms and researchers.

Rick Bright, former head of BARDA, may have been removed from the post for…

Update on stem cells for COVID-19, Surgisphere scandal

The term Regenerative Medicine covers so much biomedical science these days including everything from just about any kind of cell therapy (not just stem cells) to CRISPR gene editing, and with the the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems this umbrella use of the term now includes potential treatment of viral illnesses.

It can be hard to keep track of it all. I’m regularly doing a kind of “regenerative…

Field throws stem cells for COVID-19 like spaghetti on the wall

The idea of testing stem cells for COVID-19 may be music to the ears of some folks as an opportunity, but to me from the beginning it sounded mostly like a spaghetti on the wall road to trouble.

There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with COVID-19. The reality is that that’s probably not going to happen.

Even so, a whole range of people and firms are…

COVID-19 cellular medicine buzz: Mesoblast, FTC hammer, more

Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.

It’s been a busy week for the cellular and regenerative medicine space for COVID-19news with some possible ups including for Mesoblast and some definite downs. Starting with the more positive media…

Could various kinds of cell therapy help patients with COVID-19?

A variety of cell therapies, mostly focused on mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs), have gotten cleared quickly in the U.S., China, and Israel and possibly other countries to be tested in patients with the novel coronavirus. I hope at least one proves helpful. It’s mostly a long shot, but some investigational products seem…

2019-nCoV virus pathogenicity was tested in cell culture, with damage to the cells on the right upper corner being visible. Such assays may help devise treatments for COVID-19. Credit: Pasteur Institut Pasteur/CNR for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur.

Could two stem cell biotechs Athersys and Mesoblast help in the battle against the novel coronavirus?

Stem cells, ARDS, and COVID-19

I’v…