Stem cell science can sometimes feel like Goldilocks, but instead of trying to find a bed not too hard and not too soft it is trying to find a procedure that gets the cells to do just exactly what you want.Guest blogger Alan Trounson — December’s stem cell research highlights Each month CIRM President Alan … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — January’s stem cell research highlights

Unraveling the secrets of embryonic stem cells Everyone once in a while you come across someone who leaves you feeling somewhat in awe. I don’t mean the President or the Pope – though they are rather impressive individuals – but someone who by most definitions would be considered “ordinary” but who, it turns out, is … Continue reading Wise beyond her years – a teenager’s perspective on stem cells

Math may help in a deeper understanding of stem cellsWhy do cells do what they do? Why does one cell become cancerous while its neighbor remains normal? What makes a stem cell ultimately change or differentiate into a nerve cell in the brain, rather a pancreatic beta cell? What influences those decisions?The fact is, even … Continue reading Math to the rescue – the formula to a better understanding of stem cells

Chris Stiehl; photo courtesy UCSDThe recent Google Hangout on Diabetes sparked what I thought was a great conversation about the status of research on diabetes today. The topics dealt primarily with type 1 diabetes, but there were implications for type 2 as well. We packed a lot into the one-hour Hangout, but there were so … Continue reading Defying the odds – living with diabetes for more than half a century

Courtesy: Filipe Matos FrazaoFor the third time in as many weeks another company we fund got a very nice financial boost on its way to clinical trials.  The latest news involves ViaCyte, a San Diego-based company that has developed a device to help patients with type 1 diabetes. Over the years we have given ViaCyte … Continue reading Third time is certainly charming – CIRM-funded company gets financial boost

cell division - happening right now somewhere in your body Cell division is an amazing biological process that’s very easy to take for granted during the day-in, day-out work of biomedical research. Keeping your dividing cells healthy in their petri dishes becomes just a necessary task, a means to an end, in order to multiply … Continue reading UCSD study of cell division in blood stem cells reveals potential new path to fight leukemia

3D image of breast cancer cells It’s one of cell biology’s Catch-22s: To observe a cell’s behavior, researchers often have to expose it to a dye or some other chemical. However, dyes change a cell’s behavior, making the observations less reliable. But now, researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique that provides … Continue reading Observing Cells by Leaving them Alone

Bone marrow transplantCan you imagine a world where every man, woman or child who needed a bone marrow transplant could receive one on demand?Bone marrow transplantation is a true success story in the field of regenerative medicine. In this procedure, healthy blood stem cells, or hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), are transferred to a patient with … Continue reading Solving the bone marrow transplant bottleneck – new approaches that could save lives