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. Two ways to clean up mitochondrial defects. Every student gets it drilled into them that we get half our genes from mom and half from … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: fixing defects we got from mom, lung repair and staunching chronic nerve pain
Month: July 2015
Pushing, pulling and dragging stem cell research forward
Government agencies are known for many things, but generally speaking a willingness to do some voluntary, deep self-examination is not one of them. However, for the last few weeks CIRM has been doing a lot of introspection as we develop a new Strategic Plan, a kind of road map for where we are heading. But … Continue reading Pushing, pulling and dragging stem cell research forward
Moving Beyond Current CIRM Funding
Delivering on CIRM’s mission of “accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs” requires the participation of multiple stakeholders to span the research, development, and commercialization phases of bringing a new product to market. In this post, I am pleased to highlight two recent examples of CIRM-funded projects moving beyond their period of … Continue reading Moving Beyond Current CIRM Funding
Giving stem cells the right physical cues produced micro hearts, maybe a tool to avoid birth defects
Heart defects, one of the leading types of birth defects, often result from drugs mom is taking, but we have not had a good model of developing fetal hearts to test drugs for these side effects. Now, a team at the University of California, Berkeley and the Gladstone Institutes has created micro heart chambers in … Continue reading Giving stem cells the right physical cues produced micro hearts, maybe a tool to avoid birth defects
Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
Two California teams discovered genetic machinery that cancer stem cells in high-grade brain cancers use to evade therapy. One CIRM-funded team at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles pinpointed a family of genes that turn off other genes that chemotherapy targets —effectively hiding them from the chemo. The other team at the University of California, San Diego … Continue reading Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: correcting cystic fibrosis gene, improving IVF outcome, growing bone and Dolly
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. Cystic Fibrosis gene corrected in stem cells. A team at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston corrected the defective gene that causes cystic … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: correcting cystic fibrosis gene, improving IVF outcome, growing bone and Dolly
New Video: Paving a path to cures with the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network
In The Stem Cellar, you often read phrases like, “as their research progresses toward the clinic.” That’s because it’s a very noteworthy milestone to advance an initial idea in the laboratory to an actual experimental therapy that has approval to be tested in people. It’s a process that can be years in making. Through our … Continue reading New Video: Paving a path to cures with the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network
Partnering with Big Pharma to benefit patients
Our mission at CIRM is to accelerate the development of stem cell therapies for patients with unmet medical needs. One way we have been doing that is funding promising research to help it get through what’s called the “Valley of Death.” This is the time between a product or project showing promise and the time … Continue reading Partnering with Big Pharma to benefit patients
Parkinson’s blog explains the science behind turning skin cells into a model for the disease
When my colleagues and I write about new advances in stem cell science we often rely on what I refer to as the Sydney Harris method of explaining the science. One of the cartoonist’s most reproduced drawings shows a researcher writing a series of steps on a chalk board with one in the middle being … Continue reading Parkinson’s blog explains the science behind turning skin cells into a model for the disease
Share your voice, shape our future
There is power in a single voice. I am always reminded of that whenever I meet a patient advocate and hear them talk about the need for treatments and cures – and not just for their particular disease but for everyone. The passion and commitment they display in advocating for more research funding reflects the … Continue reading Share your voice, shape our future
The Stem Cellar 