Recent research from the University of Iowa suggests that people with cystic fibrosis have fewer of the stem cells that would normally repair the airway. In most people, glands in the airway secrete bacteria-killing factors to help fight infection. These glands are also home to airway stem cells that rebuild the glands and keep them … Continue reading Lung airway stem cells awry in cystic fibrosis

Stem cell science is set to get a boost from an unlikely source: outer space. It turns out that techniques devised to help telescopes peer through the blur of the earth's atmosphere could help scientists peak more deeply into tissues. If the technique, called adaptive optics or AO, works it might prove useful for scientists … Continue reading Tracking stem cells using tricks learned in outer space

Today U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth dismissed a lawsuit that has been creating uncertainty for stem cell scientists for almost a year. The Washington Post quotes Lamberth's opinion:“This Court, following the D.C. Circuit’s reasoning and conclusions, must find that defendants reasonably interpreted the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to permit funding for human embryonic stem cell research because … Continue reading A history of the stem cell lawsuit & what it meant to California scientists

The North County Times had a good story yesterday about Fred Gage's new role as the president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Gage is a renowned stem cell scientists at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, which also wrote about his new role.Gage was the first to show that people do, in … Continue reading Discoverer of brain stem cells becomes president of ISSCR

On July 8, 2011 the CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research trainees met in Burlingame, CA to share results from their research internships. Their enthusiasm for stem cell science made for a fun poster session where the students had a chance to share their internship research with other students, with CIRM staff and board members, … Continue reading CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research students talk science in our new video

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.In the past month one paper struck me as especially important because it … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — July’s stem cell research highlights

This is the way things often go in science: One group announces a breakthrough. Yah! Then for the next several years, scientists all over the world replicate and improve on that breakthrough until it's finally believable and widely useful.To people outside science who read about the initial breakthrough, this may look a lot like scientists … Continue reading Improved technique for directly converting skin to neurons

Richmond-based Sangamo BioSciences has been making a lot of news lately with their gene editing technology. Theirs is the technique being used in CIRM'S HIV Disease Team Award to John Zaia at The City of Hope (summarized in this San Francisco Business Journal story). Sangamo's so-called zinc finger technology can recognize a specific location in … Continue reading CIRM HIV/AIDS disease team technology makes news

CIRM grantees at University of California Irvine have used human neural stem cells to help alleviate brain damage that occurs after radiation to treat brain tumors.Radiation can be an effective way of treating tumors in the brain, but the radiation also kills surrounding healthy tissue in addition to the destroying the tumor. Even if the … Continue reading Stem cells improve brain function after radiation therapy