Cynthia Schaffer supports CIRM’s Business Development and Industry Engagement and Commercialization activities. We always consider ourselves on the front wave of technology here in California. We have Silicon Valley and a huge biotechnology sector. We are also the state that voted to create CIRM, the largest funder of stem cell research outside of the National … Continue reading Start the conversation, ask your relatives about stem cell value

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. This month’s report discusses a couple very pragmatic but elegant riffs on … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — March’s stem cell research highlights

Using stem cells as a repair kit often requires two steps, maturing the stem cells into the right tissue, and then getting that new tissue to behave the way it is needed. Specifically, getting motor nerves to restore function to paralyzed muscle requires them to signal the muscle to contract when needed. So, a team … Continue reading Light activation may make nerves grown from stem cells better at restoring paralyzed muscle

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. Naïve embryonic stem cells more versatile. We often talk about how valuable embryonic stem cells are because they are pluripotent—they can become anything in our … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: more versatile cells, heart disease and gearing up cell production

Retigabine, an approved epilepsy drug that may offer hope for ALS patients Today’s blog is the third in as many days about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research and this one may be the most tantalizing. Earlier this morning, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) announced the publication of two reports that point to an already … Continue reading Epilepsy drug may offer hope for ALS treatment, Harvard stem cell researchers report

Motor neurons control our muscle movements. In ALS, these cells die. In 2012, CIRM’s Board awarded over $17 million to a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center team to help bring a stem cell based therapy for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) to clinical trials in people. Yesterday, the Department of Defense (DoD) got into the act by announcing … Continue reading Military Marches in Step with Stem Cell Agency By Helping Bring ALS Research at Cedars-Sinai to Clinical Trials

Motor neuron progenitors made from embryonic stem cellsThe best scientists are, in many ways, like great chefs. It’s not the ingredients that they use that make a great meal, but how they blend them together. In the same way scientists often have the same basic elements but it’s the way they work with those that … Continue reading Building more nerves of the brain and spinal cord, faster and more efficiently