A colony of human embryonic stem cells, courtesy of Julie Baker at the Stanford University School of MedicineScientists at Oregon Health & Science University have achieved what many scientists have been working toward for decades: they’ve created embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos.These cells, like the embryonic stem cells that come from embryos donated … Continue reading Caffeine held the key to creating embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos

Neuron showing the protective sheath that is lost in people with multiple sclerosisOur grantees at Stanford University have found a protein with an intriguing role in the development of multiple sclerosis. The work is still in mice, but points to a new pathway for developing drugs for the disease.People with MS slowly lose the protective … Continue reading Getting rid of a protein that promotes longer lifespan slows MS in mice

Frozen iPS cells courtesy of William Collins in the lab of Deepak Srivastava and Christopher Schlieve at the Gladstone Institutes.It looks like California is a veritable hotbed of reprogrammed stem cell activity. (These are the iPS cells that are reprogrammed from adult tissues like skin.)The publication Genetic Engineering News looked at new patents for iPS … Continue reading California a veritable hotbed of iPS cell patent activity, study finds

Ron Leuty of the San Francisco Business Times  wrote a nice obituary for breast cancer advocate Barbara Brenner, who founded the notoriously feisty Breast Cancer Action. The San Francisco-based organization took aim at Big Pharama, Big Biotech and what she called the "pinkwashing" of breast cancer awareness.Brenner died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's … Continue reading Breast cancer advocate Barbara Brenner dies of ALS

Image by LittleDebbie11Back in the late 1990s, CIRM grantee at Salk Institute for Biological Studies Fred Gage published what might be my favorite stem cell research ever: he found mice that exercise regularly have more new neurons forming in their brains and seemed to have better memories than their couch-potato labmates.As a runner, that struck … Continue reading Excercise induces new neurons to form in the brain via seratonin

Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. Getting a therapy to market. Fierce Biotech published an insightful interview with Henry Termeer, former CEO of Genzyme, which was the first company to market … Continue reading Stem cell Stories that caught our eye: getting therapies to market, creating new bone, healing skin ulcers

(photo: Wikimedia Commons)A video by Stanford University recently reminded me of my own surprise, as a biologist, of the power of math. The video and corresponding Scope blog entry describes Stanford stem cell scientists getting a shock when a mere engineer gave them a lesson in speeding up research.One nice perk to choosing a cell … Continue reading Mathematics + Biology: A Stem Cell Genetics Love Story

President Obama issued an executive order yesterday requiring federal agencies to make data publicly available. A Washington Post story quotes President Obama explaining the value of this data:“We’re making it easier for people to find the data and use it, so that entrepreneurs can build products and services we haven’t even imagined yet."We agree that … Continue reading White House calls for more #opendata, we agree! Check ours out

Transplanted neurons treat mice with epilepsy. Courtesy of Scott Baraban, Robert Hunt, and Kelly GirksisOur grantees at UCSF overachieved this week, showing both that transplants of a certain cell type can treat epilepsy in mice, and that they can generate those cells starting with human stem cells -- either embryonic or reprogrammed.First, the epileptic mice. That … Continue reading Transplanted neurons treat mice with epilepsy

Researchers at Harvard University have big news today: their scientists found a protein in the blood that seems to reverse the effects of aging in the hearts of mice. Young mice have a lot of the protein, called GDF-11, old mice less so. When they injected the protein into the blood of older mice, their … Continue reading Becoming young at heart: single protein helps old hearts appear young in mice