A group at the University of California, Los Angeles AIDS Institute has manipulated human blood-forming stem cells to fight HIV infected cells. The technique could conceivably be used to help the body fight any number of viral infections, the authors say.The researchers started with blood-forming stem cells normally found in the bone marrow. These cells … Continue reading Engineered human stem cells destroy HIV infected cells

The 400th paper published with CIRM funding also marks the five-year anniversary of the first CIRM board meeting (the actual date was December 17, 2004). The paper, by researchers at the Gladstone Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, illustrates how far the field has come in the five years since the organization’s inception, … Continue reading 400th CIRM-funded paper clarifies link between gene variant and Alzheimer’s

Embryonic stem cells stand poised to grow into various tissues, but are held in check by chemical switches that keep the necessary genes turned off. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that genes responsible for limb regeneration – in this case the snipped tail of a zebrafish – are held in a … Continue reading Lever found for switch to re-grow your tail—if you’re a fish