Nobel Prize winner Stanley Prusiner was one of the authors on a letter to the New York Times on October 27 advocating that congress pass legislation that “would raise the annual federal investment in Alzheimer’s research to $2 billion, and require that the president designate an official whose sole job would be to develop and … Continue reading Nobel prize winner Stanley Prusiner calls for Alzheimer’s disease funding

A story by Nick Wade in Monday’s New York Times rubbed some scientists the wrong way — and I must admit the piece was not too popular around CIRM headquarters. Wade equated research funding with picking stocks. His idea is that a broad portfolio is bound to include some winners (he attributes this approach to … Continue reading Stem cell research like picking stocks? We don’t think so.

Gina Kolata had an interesting piece in today’s New York Times about the difficulty of predicting where the next big biomedical breakthrough will come. She, like many people, had predicted big things for gene therapy. She was wrong. She writes:But was I right to say advances are unpredictable? Yes and no, scientists say. “I’ve learned … Continue reading The next big thing — and how to fund it

Over the past two years we’ve watched a series of scientists shoot down the prevailing idea that one adult cell type cannot be converted into a different adult cell, with researchers directly converting skin cells into insulin-producing cells, nerve cells and heart tissue. (You can see our blog entry on this work here.)A Canadian team … Continue reading Human skin cells converted to blood

Drosophila intestinal stem cells (ISCs) respond to nutrient availabilityImage: Courtesy of Dr. Lei Wang, Salk Institute for Biological Studies Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found an intriguing connection between stem cell behavior and food. The more food, the more stem cells, and those stem cells divide more vigorously. The researchers did … Continue reading Food begets stem cells?

At CIRM we want nothing more than to find cures for the diseases that afflict people around the world. Until that day comes, many of the diseases we hope to cure — Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, ALS, to name a few — place an incredible burden on the caregivers in addition to … Continue reading A salute to caregivers from Leeza Gibbons

Science had a story this morning about what yesterday’s elections mean for stem cell funding. In it they suggest it’s unlikely that the lame duck congressional session will bring legislation to expressly legalize federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, writing:"I don't think it's going to be a priority for them," says Jennifer Zeitzer … Continue reading Federal stem cell legislation unlikely in lame duck session

Guest blogger Geoff LomaxSenior Officer to the Standards Working GroupCIRM reached an important milestone with the recent registration of a 15th human embryonic stem cell line created with institute funding. (Here is a description of how researchers create human embryonic stem cell lines.) In approving Proposition 71, the citizens of California entrusted CIRM to support … Continue reading 15 registered stem cell lines and counting

Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have created a tiny, functional liver grown from stem cells. It's not big enough to process a half-time beer (Go Giants!), or much of anything else, but it's an interesting start.The researchers presented their laboratory-grown liver, which is about the size of a walnut, at a meeting … Continue reading Miniature liver grown from stem cells