As the New Year fast approaches, it’s time for us to reflect on our accomplishments these past 12 months. 2017 was an exciting and successful year for California’s Stem Cell Agency. We welcomed Dr. Maria Millan as the new President and CEO of CIRM. We also funded 16 new clinical trials and added two new medical centers (UCSF and UC Davis) to our CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network. These are just a few examples of the significant progress that our Agency has made towards accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.

As you can imagine, these advances as well as the steady stream of new discoveries in the stem cell field, have kept our communications team very busy. In fact, I took a quick look at how many blogs we published in 2017 and the number is an impressive 242. That translates to blogging about stem cell research 66% of the year! How’s that for dedication?

Todd, Kevin and I love (and I truly mean that) writing for the Stem Cellar. All of the studies, trials, scientists and patients we feature are fascinating, but there are certain stories that steal the spotlight. It’s always fun to see which blogs are the most popular with our readers. So, let’s take a look at the 10 Stem Cellar stories caught your eye in 2017.

1. Can stem cell therapies help ALS patients?
2. jCyte gets FDA go-ahead for fast track review process of retinitis pigmentosa stem cell therapy
3. A stem cell clinical trial for blindness: watch Rosie’s story
4. Could stem cells help beat multiple sclerosis?
5. Bye bye bubble baby disease: promising results from the stem cell gene therapy trial for SCID
6. A clinical trial network focused on stem cell treatments is expanding
7. Have scientists discovered a natural way to boost muscle regeneration?
8. Three people left blind by Florida clinic’s unproven stem cell therapy
9. Good news from Asterias’ CIRM-funded spinal cord injury trial
10. Scientists make stem cell-derived nerve cells damaged in spinal cord injury

Honorable Mentions (underdog blogs that deserve a second look)

1. 4 things to know about stem cell clinical trials [Video]
2. ViaCyte treats first patients in PEC-Direct stem cell trial for type 1 diabetes
3. Family, faith and funding from CIRM inspire one patient to plan for his future
4. Texas tries to go it alone in offering unproven stem cell therapies to patients
5. Has the promise of stem cells been overstated?

See you in January!

From all of us at CIRM, we wish you the happiest of holidays and good luck in the New Year. We’ll see you back here in January with exciting new content from our 2018 Annual Report. Stay tuned and stay curious my friends!