The RegMed Daily Dialogue, 5/23/11, macro issues blow the day
Regenerative medicine/stem cell universe stocks are down in mid-day trading on Monday (5/23/11). The NASDAQ is down -48.26 (-1.72%) to 2757.31. The Dow is also down -145.99 (-1.64%) to 12,366.05. What’s driving the regenerative medicine – stem cell market today … NOTHING!
Equity futures are trading below fair value, following Europe lower on ongoing debt worries. Equity markets fell sharply from the open as worries over peripheral Europe’s debt crisis, disappointing economic data, election results from Spain and Germany over the weekend. Asian markets also fell following worries about EU debt and US growth. The bottom line, economic recovery may be weakening; maybe Obama should drink some or more Irish beer to clarify his economic policies! Another concern will be what will happen if the short sellers are more unleashed.
ASTM ($0.02), STEM ($0.003) and TNGN ($0.07) are up – barely!
Stem Cell Research an Issue in Michigan: A showdown over university reporting requirements for embryonic stem cell research is possible as Michigan lawmakers and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder prepare to finish work on the next state budget. Republican lawmakers plan to include language in budget bills that would require public universities doing the research to report some information to state. The data would include how many human embryos are used for research. The bottom line, the provision would be unconstitutional, unenforceable and would conflict with a voter-approved constitutional amendment to expressly permit stem cell research.
Science Brief, Prompting hESCs and hIPSCs to differentiate: Scientists have developed the chemically defined conditions necessary to prompt human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to differentiate into immature astrocytes. The University of Wisconsin-Madison team claims the immature astrocytes readily develop into mature astrocytes when implanted in the mouse brain, by forming connections with blood vessels in Nature Biotechnology, titled “Specification of transplantable astroglial subtypes from human pluripotent stem cells.” The bottom line, abnormalities in astroglial cells have also been linked with a range of human pathologies including neurodegenerative diseases. However, generating these cell types from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has to date remained elusive. The hPSCs were differentiated to neuroepithelial cells, specified to regional progenitors, and then expanded. The new approach allows the generation of a nearly pure population of astroglial progenitors that can be readily expanded to large quantities.
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