We’ve been rolling out our 2011 Annual Report stories throughout the past few weeks. The full report is posted online and is available for download from our website. Today we are introducing a story about CIRM’s efforts to overcome barriers in the path to the clinic.CIRM’s primary focus is on funding stem cell research. But … Continue reading Helping grantees overcome barriers in the path to new therapies

“Can one feel too attached? Does one need to let go to mature? Neural stem cells have this problem, too. “So asks a UCLA press release about work by CIRM grantee Bennett Novitch. He and a team have been working to understand how neural stem cells understand when it’s time to leave their protected homes … Continue reading How brain stem cells grow up: insights could aid in autism, brain tumors, language disorders

Senator Art Torres (ret.) is CIRM's statutory vice-chair April has been designated as National Minority Health Month, a cause that is dear to my heart and an issue we take seriously at CIRM. That’s one of the reasons we created the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program, to create a pipeline program for students that … Continue reading Sen. Art Torres discusses National Minority Health Month

There’s more news on heart disease today, this time from CIRM grantees at Stanford University. A team led by Joseph Wu used stem cells to create a model of a genetic disease called dilated cardiomyopathy in a lab dish and used that model to validate two approaches to treating the disease. Their work was published … Continue reading Stem cells used to mimic heart condition in a lab dish, test therapies

Our ultimate goal at CIRM, from day one, has been to get therapies to the people who need them most, the patients. That’s why our energy is focused on working with scientists in the lab and clinic, and patient advocates to move the most promising research along the development pipeline as fast as possible. This … Continue reading New CIRM initiative helps move promising therapies into clinical trials

Heart muscle cells directly reprogrammed from skin, Deepak Srivastava, Gladstone InstitutesCIRM grantees at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco have carried out a remarkable feat: They directly converted scar-forming cells in the mouse heart into beating cells.We’ve previously blogged about work led by Deepak Srivastava, who had converted non-beating heart cells in the lab dish … Continue reading Scar tissue transformed into beating cells in the hearts of mice

It’s never easy to hear people criticize you in public, particularly when you think some of the criticism is misguided or just downright wrong. But while it’s never fun to hear those kinds of comments, it can be very instructive and even enlightening to see how others see you.On Tuesday, April 10 the Institute of … Continue reading Different voices at public hearing help CIRM focus on the future

Kevin McCormack is the new Sr. Director of Public Communications and Patient Advocate Outreach at CIRM. His first post on our blog introduces CIRM’s 2011 Annual Report section on our progress toward therapies. We’ve been rolling out annual report stories throughout the past few weeks and will be posting the full report online in early … Continue reading Progress Toward Therapies: CIRM’s therapies in development

For Diana Souza, working on her 23-acre ranch in the mountains east of Redding, California is a labor of love. But last year, a fall from a ladder left her with a badly fractured left arm that would not heal. Her arm became deformed from the cumulative effects of that fall and two previous fractures … Continue reading UC Davis clinical trial helps bones heal

Last week the Canadian magazine Macleans ran a Q&A with James Till, who, along with Ernest McCulloch, discovered stem cells almost 50 years ago. Together they won the prestigious Lasker Award in 2005 for their discovery, which was initially published in a 1963 Nature paper.The pair identified the stem cells in bone marrow that produce … Continue reading James Till on the history and future of stem cells