Arturo Alvarex-Buylla, PhDCIRM grantee and UCSF professor Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD, won the prestigious 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research for his work with neural stem cells. He is credited with first discovering the regenerative cells in the brains of mammals, work that laid the groundwork for a number of CIRM grants … Continue reading CIRM grantee Alvarez-Buylla wins 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for neural stem cell research

Last year a group of CIRM grantees at Stanford University directly converted mouse skin cells into neurons, bypassing the need to first convert those cells into an embryonic-like state. Now they've gone a step farther, pulling off the same feat with human cells. They published the work in the May 26 Nature.Krista Conger at Stanford … Continue reading CIRM grantees convert skin to nerves, a step toward therapies for neurological disease

Each month CIRM President Alan Trounson gives his perspective on recently published papers he thinks will be valuable in moving the field of stem cell research forward. This month’s report, along with an archive of past reports, is available on the CIRM website.The first paper I highlight in this month’s summary, purporting to have found … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — May’s stem cell highlights

A new Nature paper from CIRM grantees at Stanford University once again shows the value of reprogrammed iPS cells in understanding disease. Scientists can't develop a therapy for a disease if they don't know what it is going wrong. In many cases, iPS cells have provided the first ever way of peering into diseased cells … Continue reading iPS cells reveal stem cell origin of disease

A press release about CIRM grantees at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies contains what might be the truest words in stem cell science:In principle, genetic engineering is simple, but in practice, replacing a faulty gene with a healthy copy is anything but.Several CIRM grantees could sum up their work in that same way. We've … Continue reading Gene replacement in stem cells made easier

California State University Long Beach has a nice story today about their students funded by our Bridges to Stem Cell Research program. Mostly, CIRM funds science. But in order for that science to move forward we also need to make sure the state has enough trained stem cell scientists. What's the point of fostering new … Continue reading Funding students, fueling stem cell science

Michael J. Fox has an excellent — and somewhat pointed — Op-Ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle in which he points out that if people want cures, they need to participate in research. He says:Today, America is waiting expectantly for a new generation of scientific breakthroughs - in cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease and, of course, … Continue reading Clinical trial participation essential

I'm thrilled to have a legitimate reason to blog about the lowly planeria. This little flat worm is renowned amongst high school and freshman biology students for it's ability to regrow copies of itself when cut in half. In theory, slicing right between the planeria's eyes can even produce a two-headed worm, though that's one … Continue reading From the just plain cool files