Two of the happiest words in the English language are “tax refund”. First of all there’s a great sense of relief in just finishing your tax return and finding out you don’t owe any money. But to discover you are getting some back is truly delightful. It conjures up thoughts of ‘oh, now I can … Continue reading How You Can Help Fight Two Taxing Diseases

What are you doing March 7? If you are in the San Francisco area you should come up to our public meeting where you can learn how the state stem cell agency is fueling the development of new therapies for debilitating diseases and conditions like blindness, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders such as … Continue reading Mix & mingle with stem cell scientists and learn about new therapies

Ear hair cell derived from embryonic stem cells | Stefan Heller, Stanford University School of MedicineA paper published this week in the journal Neuron nicely demonstrates how research using stem cells can help scientists devise better drugs. In this case, for deafness. As Gretchen Vogel from ScienceNOW so nicely writes, “All you graying, half-deaf Def … Continue reading Hear ye! Drug prompts inner ear stem cells to regenerate

Paul Knoepfler giving the Stem Cell Person of the Year award to Roman ReedLate last year we told you about UC Davis researcher and avid blogger Dr. Paul Knoepfler’s decision to hold a “Stem Cell Person of the Year” contest (you can read that blog here). He invited people to nominate someone they thought had … Continue reading Stem cell person of the year: Roman Reed

About one in 500 people have a genetic mutation that too often first shows up tragically when a young athlete dies suddenly on a basketball court or football field. The mutation causes their hearts to change shape, making them weaker and less able to pump blood. It also makes some people’s heart develop abnormal heartbeats. … Continue reading Help for enlarged hearts?

The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) held its third annual “State of the Industry” briefing this morning at the Biotech Showcase that occurs every January in San Francisco. These events bring together the leadership of companies seeking to develop new therapies with the investors needed to fund their work and can be tense affairs. The … Continue reading Industry leaders predict a great year for regenerative medicine

The legal case that would have halted the ability of the NIH to fund embryonic stem cell research finally came to a close today when the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The story began in August, 2010, when federal judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research impermissible … Continue reading Supreme Court won’t hear stem cell case: funding can continue

If you were diagnosed with a life-threatening or life-impairing disease and told there was no proven therapy that could help you, wouldn’t you think about turning to an unproven therapy? That’s the dilemma facing many patients with diseases ranging from multiple sclerosis to arthritis, and many are turning to unproven and unregulated stem cell therapies … Continue reading Hope, fear, money and the regulation of stem cell therapies

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 full report this month includes two projects that created new cell lines. … Continue reading Alan Trounson discusses improved way of studying Fragile X syndrome

We're starting 2013 with a blog entry from Katie Jackson about the UC Davis Huntington Disease Team recently funded by CIRM. My name is Katie Jackson and seven years ago I had the perfect life. I married the love of my life. We had two beautiful children a little boy and little girl. We both … Continue reading A patient’s story of hope for a Huntington’s disease therapy