Blood stem cell gene therapy – the comeback kid of experimental medicine

by David Kent | Apr 21, 2020

Over the coming weeks, I will be writing a series of blog entries on gene therapy using blood stem cells as a base cellular product. In the last few years we have witnessed an incredible return to the headlines for gene therapy now that safer, more accurate tools have...

Stem cell training – Supplementary resources

by Lyla El-Fayomi | Apr 16, 2020

Starting work on a new research project can be overwhelming. This is especially true in the stem cell field, with its complexities and rapid evolution. It is quite easy to get lost while conducting literature searches or looking for specific protocols, making it feel...

Are the COVID-19 streamlined regulatory processes a good idea and should we do more of this?

by Guest | Apr 9, 2020

Síofradh McMahon is the Senior Manager, Clinical Translation and Regulatory Affairs at CCRM. Siofradh works with academic and industry partners to advance promising products and technologies to commercialization. Having worked worldwide, Síofradh brings more than a...

Communicating new science in a crisis

by Samantha Yammine | Apr 2, 2020

On most days, scientific discoveries are not cover stories or even top headlines. That hasn’t been the case since COVID-19 hit our collective consciousness. We are being inundated with science news, which would be great under different circumstances. But communicating...

Could stem cells be enlisted to battle COVID-19?

by Jovana Drinjakovic | Mar 26, 2020

Earlier this month, Chinese media reported that doctors in Yunnan cured a patient from coronavirus with a stem cell transplant. But did they really and do stem cells actually hold promise against the new virus wreaking havoc across the world? The global pandemic has...

Western Canada bolsters Canada’s strength in regenerative medicine

by Laine Bodnar | Mar 19, 2020

Canada’s strength in regenerative medicine (RM) and cell and gene therapies is a result of efforts that take place from sea to shining sea. Western Canada’s growing RM community significantly increases Canada’s competitiveness on the global playing field through its...

Cell therapies: how much will we pay?

by CCRM Australia | Mar 12, 2020

Dr. Chih Wei Teng is Chief Operating Officer for CCRM Australia and wrote this blog with colleagues Alex Barrington and Dr. Emma Gallaher. To subscribe to the CCRM Australia newsletter: Click here  As stem cell therapies move through clinical trials and get closer to...

Stem cells in organoids theme of StemCellTalks 2020

by Guest | Mar 5, 2020

Eleni Kanavas is the Internal Communications Administrator at CCRM. She has more than eight years of corporate communications experience working in the academic and health science fields. She graduated with an Honours BA in Journalism from the University of Toronto...

Right Turn: Exciting progress in treating Cystic Fibrosis

by Stacey Johnson | Feb 28, 2020

I am going to take a guess that the teen romance movie Five Feet Apart, starring Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, introduced many people to cystic fibrosis (CF). Certainly that was the case for my teenage daughter. I learned about CF through television ads, “back...

Antibodies help create a safe passage for T cell troops to defeat solid tumours

by Tara Fernandez | Feb 20, 2020

Immunotherapies have been heralded as a revolutionary paradigm shift in how cancer is treated, thanks to the exceptional cancer-killing properties of checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. Today, approved therapies Yescarta™ and Kymriah™,...