A consortium of researchers around the U.S. used transplanted neural stem cells (shown here) to treat a mouse model of ALS.CIRM grantees at Sanford-Burnham were part of a consortium that found transplanted neural stem cells slows the progress of a form of Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS) in mice. It’s still too … Continue reading Neural stem cells show signs of treating ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in mice

This is the time of year when everybody is posting their year end best-of list. Not wanting to be left out, I went through to find our top blog entries of the year. What I learned is that readers are eager to know about progress toward therapies, which makes perfect sense. As an agency, we … Continue reading Most popular stem cell stories of 2012: diabetes, spinal cord injury, and what the future holds

Earlier this year CIRM grantee and stem cell blogger Paul Knoepfler requested nominations for his stem cell person of the year competition. In a video that accompanies his request, Knoepfler says he was hoping to honor someone other than the usual stodgy scientists—people who have gone out of their way to propel the field through … Continue reading Stem cell who’s who: 2012 Person of the Year

Dr. Stanley NelsonCIRM grantees at UCLA published a paper last week showing that a drug that’s currently being tested for other uses might also be effective in treating people with muscular dystrophy. The group got a $6 million Early Translational award from CIRM to turn this research into a clinical trial for the disease (here's … Continue reading Old drug finds new life treating muscular dystrophy

Image: Credit: Nissim Benvenisty, via Wikimedia CommonsWe’ve written quite a bit about the dangers of stem cell tourism and about unregulated treatments in the U.S. The concern is that people are paying large amounts of money to receive injections of cells that haven’t been tested for safety. Scientific American recently published a story that’s receiving … Continue reading Has that stem cell treatment been tested? Better check before paying

Sixteen years ago the first edition of The Global Burden of Disease was released in hard cover. I remember lugging the 1,022 page edition, complete with tables of data, around campus as a masters of public health student at UC Berkeley. Professor Kirk Smith made us use the tables to calculate how disease patterns vary … Continue reading CIRM Research in a Global Perspective

Alan Trounson, CIRM PresidentEach 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 full report this month includes a couple important advances … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — November’s stem cell research highlights

After three days of being with a few hundred like-minded and energized folks at the World Stem Cell Summit in Florida, I was able to hop up the coast to D.C. for the annual meeting of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medicine, an event that I can usually only catch a piece of by … Continue reading Coalition helps keep our embryonic stem cell work legal

Jonathan Thomas is chair of CIRM's governing board, the Independent Citizens' Oversight CommitteeFrom the very beginning in 2004, when voters approved Proposition 71, creating the stem cell agency and providing us with the money to help fund research, CIRM has been a unique organization. No other state agency was ever created in this way. As … Continue reading Jonathan Thomas discussion IOM report on CIRM: “Bold social innovation”

Jonathan Thomas is chair of CIRM's governing board, the Independent Citizens' Oversight CommitteeFrom the very beginning in 2004, when voters approved Proposition 71, creating the stem cell agency and providing us with the money to help fund research, CIRM has been a unique organization. No other state agency was ever created in this way. As … Continue reading Jonathan Thomas discussion IOM report on CIRM: "Bold social innovation"