Happy Holidays to our loyal Stem Cellar fans! 🎉⛄

The days between Christmas and New Years are my favorite time of the year. The roads are empty, parking is plentiful and no one is in the office to judge my voracious cookie consumption. It’s also a time for us to reflect on what we’ve accomplished in 2016 at CIRM and to revisit the most interesting stories that we’ve blogged about on the Stem Cellar.

We will be publishing our Annual Report on January 2^nd, so be sure to check out our blog then for an update on what CIRM has been up to this past year. The report is chock full of inspiring stories about the stem cell research we’re funding, the scientists behind the research, and the brave patients who volunteered to test these stem cell treatments in clinical trials.

As a prelude to our Annual Report, I bring you the Top 10 Most Popular Stem Cellar Blogs of 2016 (in order). These include blogs about CIRM-funded research and our clinical trials as well as other really cool stem cell stories that you may have even read about in the news. Enjoy and see you in the New Year!

1. New Stem Cell Treatment for ALS May Slow Disease Progression
2. Young Man With Spinal Cord Injury Regains Use of Hands and Arms After Stem Cell Therapy
3. Desperate Patients and False Hope: A Troubling Trend for Stem Cell-Based Therapies
4. A Win for Diabetes: Scientists Make Functional Pancreatic Cells From Skin
5. Stem Cell Transplant Offers Jake a Glimpse of Hope
6. Why is a Cell Therapy that Restores Sight to the Blind Against the Law?
7. Stem cell stories that caught our eye: heart muscle-on-a-chip, your own private microliver, the bloody holy grail and selfish sperm
8. A New Way to Make Heart Stem Cells Could Potentially Repair Damage of Heart Disease
9. CIRM-Funded Stem Cell Clinical Trial for Retinitis Pigmentosa Focuses on Next Stage
10. Patients beware: Warnings About Shady Clinics and Suspect Treatments

Bonus 2016 blogs (A few of my favorites that didn’t quite make the top ten, but I thought were pretty rad):

• Five Cool Stem Cell Technologies to Tell Your Friends
• Meet ITOP: A One Stop Shop for 3D Printing Body Parts
• How Many Stem Cell Trials Will it Take to Get a Cure?
• Meeting the scientists who are turning their daughter’s cells into a research tool – one that could change her life forever
• A Patient Perspective on How Stem Cells Could Give a Second Vision to the Blind
• CIRM Grantees Reflect on Ten Years of iPS Cells