The National Institutes of Health has released a fact sheet about the effects of sequestration on the agency. The 5 percent cut will result in a loss of $1.55 billion during the 2013 fiscal year.They write:Medical breakthroughs do not happen overnight. In almost all instances, breakthrough discoveries result from years of incremental research to understand … Continue reading NIH sequestration fact sheet: “delaying progress in medical breakthroughs”

The National Institutes of Health has released a fact sheet about the effects of sequestration on the agency. The 5 percent cut will result in a loss of $1.55 billion during the 2013 fiscal year.They write:Medical breakthroughs do not happen overnight. In almost all instances, breakthrough discoveries result from years of incremental research to understand … Continue reading NIH sequestration fact sheet: "delaying progress in medical breakthroughs"

Nature ran an interesting story today on access to the new stem cell lines created last month through cloning. The technique involves removing the DNA from an egg, inserting the DNA from an adult cell (like skin or blood), then triggering the egg to start dividing. The end result is a 4-5 day old embryo … Continue reading Embryonic stem cell lines through cloning valuable, but access is limited

The online life sciences news site Mendelspod recently interviewed our grantee Lawrence Goldstein from the University of California, San Diego about his stem cell research into Alzheimer's disease and ALS (Lou Gehrhig's disease). Having interviewed Goldstein a number of times myself, it's not a surprise to me that he ended up having things to say … Continue reading Lawrence Goldstein discusses Alzheimer’s & ALS research, need for more funding

This is a case of a rising tide lifting at least a few extra boats. It turns out a successful heart disease project we fund at Cedars-Sinai might also benefit kids with muscular dystrophy. Eduardo Marban has been working on a disease team project to develop a way of using the heart's own stem cells … Continue reading Stem cell project for heart disease might help those with muscular dystrophy

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.My report this month opens with a journal article that earns that rarely … Continue reading Alan Trounson: embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos could improve iPS cells