First, an admission: the work I'm about to describe doesn't actually have to do with stem cell research. But it's cool, and it was done by scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, which has so far received more that $30 million in funding from CIRM. Maybe some of our grantees provided insightful … Continue reading Are you a couch potato mouse or marathon mouse? One molecule might hold the difference

Stem cells at different stages of maturing into nerve cells like those affected by A-T. Image was taken in the lab of Guoping Fan at the University of California, Los Angeles.One of the most promising uses of reprogrammed stem cells -- the embryonic-like cells generated from a patient's skin or other tissue -- is in … Continue reading Stem cells model rare neurological disease, suggest possible therapy

Diane Souza had a severely fractured arm repaired by CIRM grantees at University of California, Davis who were working with stem cells taken from bone marrow. There's more about her story on our website.Our friends at the New York Stem Cell Foundation had some big news to share yesterday afternoon: Their scientists were able to … Continue reading Growing bone from stem cells

(Photo : Frank Wojciechowski) Friends, Romans, Countrymen, print me an ear! It may not exactly be what Shakespeare had in mind but it’s what engineers at Princeton have done, using a 3D printer to create an artificial ear that they say can “hear’ radio frequencies beyond the range of normal humans.The work, which is published … Continue reading Now hear this – 3D printer creates artificial ear

Scientists in Germany have discovered what is perhaps the only positive change in a woman's body after having kids. It has to do with our stem cells.Women who have kids--especially if they have kids while young--have less risk of getting breast cancer later in life, and that protective effect only gets stronger with more children. … Continue reading Pregnancy alters breast stem cells, lowers cancer risk

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. Lab made windpipe. The one story that has been hard to miss recently tells the story of the two-year-old girl who may have been given … Continue reading Stem cell Stories that caught our eye: bioengineered windpipes, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Cancer

We've written volumes on the problem of false advertising for so-called stem cell tourism companies. They advertise miracle cures for deadly diseases, at a considerable cost. What they don't advertise is whether the touted approach has been shown to work or is safe. Well, a recent post on the science blog Skepchick discusses the issue … Continue reading Nice data, but can you reproduce it?

Earlier this week the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins spoke with Kai Rysdoll of NPR’s Marketplace about the effects of the sequester on medical research. The NIH had $1.6 billion cut from its budget. Those funds will come from trimming a percentage off of the agency’s multi-year grants. (This story from … Continue reading NIH Budget cuts: “We are putting a generation of young scientists at serious risk”

Earlier this week the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins spoke with Kai Rysdoll of NPR’s Marketplace about the effects of the sequester on medical research. The NIH had $1.6 billion cut from its budget. Those funds will come from trimming a percentage off of the agency’s multi-year grants. (This story from … Continue reading NIH Budget cuts: "We are putting a generation of young scientists at serious risk”

Bradley Fikes has an interesting story in today's San Diego Union Tribune* about stem cell approaches for treating heart disease.But first, a complaint about the headline "Scripps Clinic Performs Stem Cell Heart Therapy." They didn't. I mean the therapy part, that is. It's not a therapy if it's not therapeutic, and in this very early … Continue reading Stem cells being tested in heart disease: “We don’t want to give false hope to people”