Type 1 diabetes is such a life-changing illness that scores of teams around the world are looking for ways to replace the insulin-producing pancreatic cells that are destroyed in the disease. Many of these researchers use stem cells of various types to try to generate large quantities of insulin producing cells that could be transplanted. … Continue reading Research points to another path toward giving diabetics the insulin-producing cells they need
Month: July 2014
Blood Test Reveals Alzheimer’s Disease Risk, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
By the time someone begins to experience the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the damage has already been done. An accumulation of toxic proteins is causing brain cells to whither and die, taking with them a lifetime of precious memories. But what if we had a definitive test that could predict one’s risk of developing … Continue reading Blood Test Reveals Alzheimer’s Disease Risk, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
Bridging the gap: helping create a new generation of stem cell scientists
Inspiration comes in many different shapes and sizes, but when you see it there is no mistaking it. And when you meet and talk to the students in CIRM's Bridges program you find inspiration in each and every one of them. Training the next generation of stem cell scientists The program is designed to train … Continue reading Bridging the gap: helping create a new generation of stem cell scientists
CIRM Creativity Student Long Nguyen Learns First-Hand about the Value of Scientific Research
This summer we’re sponsoring high school interns in stem cell labs throughout California as part of our annual Creativity Program. We asked those students to share their experiences through blog posts and videos. Today, we hear from Long Nguyen, who has been busy at Stanford University's Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. Summer Reflections … Continue reading CIRM Creativity Student Long Nguyen Learns First-Hand about the Value of Scientific Research
Spiderman Sets the Tone for Stem Cell Agency Board Meeting
I don’t often think about Spiderman at meetings of our governing Board – no, really I don’t - but yesterday was an exception. Not that I was daydreaming, rather I was listening to our new President & CEO C. Randal Mills, Ph.D., talk about his determination to set a very specific tone in leading the … Continue reading Spiderman Sets the Tone for Stem Cell Agency Board Meeting
Making stem cells feel like they are growing in the right neighborhood may be key to success
An adage in real estate says that the most important thing is neighborhood, neighborhood, neighborhood. Researchers are learning that the same may be true for stem cell therapies. If you want to mature stem cells into the right adult tissue and get them to behave the way you want, you better pay attention to the … Continue reading Making stem cells feel like they are growing in the right neighborhood may be key to success
The Fatal Flip: How Nerve Cells go from Healthy to Cancerous
Every gene in the human genome has a job to do. One such gene, called Merlin, prevents cells from dividing out of control and forming into tumors. A so-called ‘tumor suppressor,’ Merlin has proven to be essential to maintaining healthy cell division. Scientists knew that without Merlin, nerve cells grew uncontrollably, often leading to tumors … Continue reading The Fatal Flip: How Nerve Cells go from Healthy to Cancerous
A Glimpse Inside the Cellular Universe: Scientists Track the Growth of an Organism, One Cell at a Time
Trying to keep tabs on how an organism grows from a single fertilized egg into an embryo, cell by cell, is hard work. So hard in fact, that no one’s quite figured out how to do it. The problem, as researchers have lamented, is that there’s just too much happening—all at the same time—for the … Continue reading A Glimpse Inside the Cellular Universe: Scientists Track the Growth of an Organism, One Cell at a Time
Welcome to the Stem Cellar
Today, as we here at CIRM move forward under the leadership of a new President, and as CIRM-funded scientists work on transforming their discoveries into therapies, we thought it was the right time for some much-needed improvements to our blog. We originally launched the blog as a way to share the latest and greatest news, … Continue reading Welcome to the Stem Cellar
What was Old is New Again: Scientists Transplant Brain Cells into Aged Mice and Reverse Memory Loss
Alzheimer’s disease starts with small, almost imperceptible steps. And then it builds. Sometimes slowly over a period of decades, other times more quickly—in just a matter of years. But no matter the speed of progression, the end outcome is always the same. The sixth leading cause of death in the United State, Alzheimer’s develops as … Continue reading What was Old is New Again: Scientists Transplant Brain Cells into Aged Mice and Reverse Memory Loss