What We Do: the subjects we explain

Proteonomix explains regenerative medicine and the wider life sciences for readers who want the real picture without a biology degree. Almost everything we publish fits into one of seven fields, and the longer reference explainers listed at the foot of this page sit underneath them as background reading. Here is what each field covers, why the subject needs careful handling, and how a typical piece is put together.

Why regenerative medicine needs plain explanation

The real science in this area is slow and specific. The marketing around it is fast and vague. Readers get both at once, often on the same screen.

Start with what is real. The FDA licensed its first public cord blood product, Hemacord, in 2011. Kymriah, the first CAR-T cell therapy, was approved in 2017. In 2023 the agency approved Omisirge, an expanded cord blood product, and Lantidra, made from donor pancreatic islet cells. In December 2024 it approved Ryoncil, the first mesenchymal stromal cell therapy, for children with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease. The FDA keeps a public list of approved cellular and gene therapy products, and it is shorter than most people expect.

Then there are the clinics. Many sell stem cell or exosome injections for joint pain, lung disease, autism, aging and more, usually without approval and often without published evidence. The FDA has issued a consumer alert on regenerative medicine products, and the International Society for Stem Cell Research publishes guidance for patients thinking about one of these offers. Our science desk piece on warning signs at unproven clinics lists the patterns that tend to repeat.

Between those two sits a large middle ground: real trials, partial results, honest uncertainty. A reader who sees only headlines has no easy way to tell which group a claim belongs to. Sorting claims into the right group is most of what we do.

The seven fields

Regenerative medicine

Stem cells, cord blood and tissue repair. Most of the reference pages live here: cord blood banking, public and private, what the lists of conditions treated with cord blood mean, mesenchymal stromal cells from bone marrow, growing cord blood stem cells outside the body, stem cells and type 1 diabetes and cell therapy after a heart attack. New readers often start with what makes a stem cell a stem cell.

Biotech explained

How a living product is made, tested and regulated. Stem cell technology covers isolation, culture and freezing, while how a cell therapy is made, from donor to dose follows one product from collection to the bedside. Translational medicine explains how a lab discovery reaches a clinic, and why so few make the trip.

Health research

Clinical trials and the papers that report them. This is where you will find how to read a ClinicalTrials.gov listing, along with plain readings of new work on organoids and induced pluripotent stem cells.

Life sciences careers

The jobs behind the headlines, at the bench and well away from it. Careers in the life sciences maps the main routes in: research, manufacturing, quality, regulatory, clinical operations and business roles. Scientists thinking about a change can read about moving from the bench to the business side.

Science and society

Ethics, teaching and the way science gets talked about in public. Teachers can use talking about stem cells in the classroom. Clinicians fielding questions about clinic ads have their own reference page on talking with patients about stem cell clinics.

Health and wellness

Everyday products that borrow the vocabulary of the lab. Our page on stem cell skincare and growth factor labels explains what those words on a jar can and cannot mean, and what the evidence on skin aging supports separates the tested from the hopeful.

Business and investing

How biotech is paid for, and how to read what companies disclose. See reading a biotech company's filings, how biotech startups are funded and why most drugs fail between phase 2 and approval.

Each field has its own page of articles: regenerative medicine, biotech explained, health research, life sciences careers, science and society, health and wellness and business and investing.

How a typical explainer is built

Most of our longer pieces have the same four parts, though not always in this order. Cord blood banking makes a good example.

1. The basics. What the thing is, in words a curious teenager could follow. Cord blood is the blood left in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth, and it is rich in blood-forming stem cells.
2. The evidence. What has been tested, in whom, and with what result, with the source named. Cord blood has been used in transplants since 1988, when a team led by Eliane Gluckman in Paris treated a child with Fanconi anemia.
3. What is approved. The exact regulatory status, including the uses it does not cover. The FDA has licensed several public cord blood products for transplants that rebuild the blood and immune system. Other proposed uses remain in trials or unproven.
4. What to ask. Questions a reader can take to a doctor, a bank or a clinic. For a cord blood bank, that might be who accredits it, what the fees cover over 20 years, and what happens to stored units if the company closes.

That last part matters most to readers who are about to make a decision. We never tell anyone what to choose. We try to make sure they know what to ask.

What we leave out

We don't cover every press release or funding round, and we don't publish stock tips or product reviews. We won't give advice about a reader's own treatment. When a story is mostly marketing, we would rather explain the science underneath it than repeat the claim.

If you are new to the subject, the reference explainers below are the best place to begin. Each one shows the date of its last review at the top and links to the science desk pieces that go deeper.