Nine months after a U.S. district court first sent federal funding for embryonic stem cell research into a tailspin, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that those opposing embryonic stem cell research were unlikely to win their case. The ruling means that, for now, federal agencies such as the NIH can continue funding embryonic stem … Continue reading U.S. Appeals Court decision–good news, but not the final word

CIRM grantees at the Scripps Research Institute, University of California, San Diego and Sanford-Burnham Research Institute have taken an intriguing step toward producing neural progenitor cells for research or therapies. The team, led by Sheng Ding who has recently moved to the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, started with mouse skin cells and converted them … Continue reading CIRM grantees directly create neuronal stem cells for research and therapies

Ethicist Arthur Caplan had an excellent piece about stem cell hype last week on Science Progress, a publication of the Center for American Progress. Caplan is Director of the Center for Bioethics and the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.He starts by saying that yes, some have over-hyped the promise … Continue reading Stem cell hope, hype, and hypocrisy according to Arthur Caplan

Yesterday, stem cell blogger and newly tenured CIRM grantee at UC Davis Paul Knoepfler had an interesting blog entry on iPS cell publications. After mining the literature for publications with the phrases iPS cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, induced pluripotent or induced pluripotency in the title, he found a consistent increase in publications each year … Continue reading CIRM a leader in iPS cell publications

Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working GroupIn my role coordinating CIRM’s Standards Working Group, I often participate in conversations about ethical implications of participating in clinical trials. In that capacity, I recently attended the annual conference for the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Professionals (AAHRPP). These conversations are … Continue reading Global Clinical Trials: Spreading the Wealth Yields Diversity

There's an image I love in an interview with Northwestern University stem cell scientist John Kessler. He is a neurologist who turned to stem cell science after skiing accident left his daughter with a spinal cord injury. In the Q&A, Kessler has this to say about how science progresses:I often use this analogy: science is … Continue reading Building stem cell-based cures brick by brick

Kristen BrennandCIRM grantee Fred Gage at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and his lab are creating a veritable cellular hospital of disease conditions playing out in laboratory dishes. What they learn from these diseases-in-miniature could lead to new ways of creating and screening drugs to treat the disorder.In 2008, he matured embryonic stem cells … Continue reading From stem cells to schizophrenia in a dish