
Forever Labs preserves young stem cells - janober
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/17/forever-labs-preserves-young-stem-cells-to-prevent-your-older-self-from-aging
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hourislate
This has been available for at least the last 20 years in a different way. I
remember a service at the hospital that they offered when my kids were born.
If I remember correctly they would cryo freeze the umbilical cord for the
future if some technology would arrive that could utilize it for medical
purposes. We skipped it thinking eventually they will be able to figure things
out without it.

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koolba
Are there any treatments for using these harvested stem cells that have
completed clinical trials? Or is this all conjecture?

How does this relate to collecting cord blood from newborns which I've heard
is total baloney for all but specific at risk instances (and even then only
useful for siblings).

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markkat
Hey, Mark from FL, here.

For bone marrow mononuclear cells or mesenchymal stem cells, the closest are
phase III, such as for heart attack
[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01569178](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01569178)
and stroke
[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01716481](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01716481),
but there are over 500 trails using the cells for a number of age-related
disease.

Many early phases have been completed and moved forward to later phases, but
this takes time before approval for many good reasons. The explosion in trials
does relate to their therapeutic potential, which we began demonstrating in
the lab 15 years ago.

TBH, one issue is that these trials use fairly disparate cell expansion
techniques, and some do not expand at all. These techniques have advanced
quite a bit in just the last several years. This has lead to disparate results
from seemingly similar trials. Much progress has been made on these fronts,
however. It's how it works. It takes time.

Umbilical cord blood isn't baloney. However, the FDA approved uses are
limited. There are, however, many trials using them for treatment of age-
related disease.

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blensor
How long does the extracted supply last. As far as I was able to discern from
the article, more stem cells are grown and banked, so if they would be used
for several future treatments is there a way to ensure that they last or is it
over after a few uses of your cells.

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markkat
We store the cells in three larger aliquots and six smaller ones. Most
clinical applications employ prior expansion of the cells before
administration. As an example, this trial using them to aid in kidney
transplantation uses 1-2M mesenchymal stem cells per kg of body weight:
[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02057965](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02057965)
that would be between 80-160M cells for most patients. For MSCs, one can get
those numbers from one of our smallest aliquots.

Stem cell expansion continues to improve, and with it, we can get more cells
from fewer without adversely affecting them in the process. As expanded cells
can be cryopreserved just as freshly collected ones, it is possible that the
cells we collect can be expanded to vast numbers, and then stored for many
future applications.

As an example, with just one of our small aliquots, I was able to generate
more MSCs in culture than I have in my body.

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reasonattlm
Banking cells for the purpose of use later in regenerative medicine is
supremely pointless. It is a hedge against technological development in cell
reprogramming and repair - technological development that is progressing at a
revolutionary pace right now, and that will soon enough enable old cells to be
restored to youthful configurations. Merely reprogramming cell samples into
induced pluripotent stem cells has already been shown to do some of that.

Let us say for the sake of argument, however, that the hedge turns out to be
worthwhile, and the exceedingly unlikely course of biotechnology not
progressing much past where it is now over the next 20 years takes place. Woe.
But then having those banked cells is basically useless because there is very
little of worth you can do with them. All of the potential cell therapy
applications that might be rolled out today are marginal for someone at very
late age.

So cell banking for future use in cell therapies is basically a business that
is only useful to its customers if the biotechnology of cellular control both
fails to advance and advances spectacularly.

~~~
markkat
(Mark from FL)

>Banking cells for the purpose of use later in regenerative medicine is
supremely pointless. It is a hedge against technological development in cell
reprogramming and repair

Obviously, I disagree that the hedge is pointless. I do agree that
rejuvenation tech will improve, I am working on some, actually. However, IMO a
youthful reservoir of multipotent cells represents an early onramp for many of
these applications.

There are vast unknowns in cellular biology, and I never need go back more
than a few months to find some largely unknown but recently discovered
machinery:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28798046](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28798046)
Some have been known for a time, and yet remain poorly understood:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_(organelle)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_\(organelle\))
Sometimes, just when we think we have a handle on something, we find that the
reality is more complicated:
[http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v14/n6/full/nmeth.4293.h...](http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v14/n6/full/nmeth.4293.html)

Not to mention the abysmal state of reproducibility in biomedical research:
[http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-39054778](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39054778)

Don't get me wrong, I am not a pessimist. We are making, and will continue to
make, great strides. However, biology intervention in humans is very
difficult. Even something as basic as male pattern baldness continues to
confound us. Just because we have the tools in the lab, doesn't mean that we
can practically apply them. However, we will be able to work upon cells ex
vivo much sooner than we can in vivo... ;)

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kathrynloving
Mark, could you comment on MSCs vs iPSCs? A Nobel Prize was awarded in 2012
[1] and I'm aware of many labs using these "Yamanaka factors" to reprogram
differentiated body cells (like skin) into stem cells. And it is possible to
move stem cells between people [2]. Right now of course everyone is waiting
for additional data on stem cell therapies (and for regulation to catch up
[3])... but by the time therapies are approved for stored MSCs, wouldn't
people just be creating allogenic iPSC "young stem cells" on-demand? Curious
to hear your thoughts!

[1]
[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2...](https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2012/press.html)
[2] [https://www.nature.com/news/japanese-man-is-first-to-
receive...](https://www.nature.com/news/japanese-man-is-first-to-receive-
reprogrammed-stem-cells-from-another-person-1.21730) [3]
[https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/u...](https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm573443.htm)

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forgotmysn
Congrats to Steve and the whole team at FL! They've been working on this for a
long time, and Steve can really hustle. I'm excited to see what they can do
with YC behind them :)

edit: phrasing. apparently 'huslter' has connotations other than 'one who
hustles' lol

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aleyan
I don't think "hustler" is interpreted as a compliment in the medical
industry. Too long a history of snake oil salesmen peddling to the afflicted.

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ucaetano
"For adults, it’s not so common, and there’s a lot of snake oil out there,
Clausnitzer cautions."

“You’ll essentially young-blood effect yourself,” Clausnitzer joked

Snake oil salesman warning against other snake oil?

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ada1981
Am I the only one who feels like I need to be even more scrupulous when the
phrase "Ivy-League" is thrown in descriptions for credibility?

I feel like some of the greatest crimes and scams have come out of the Ivy
League.

In short, for some reason using Ivy League often feels like a negative signal
to me in terms of actually getting results.

Maybe I'm just a biased jerk, also open to that.

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du_bing
Interesting startup.

