In need of an extra dose of inspiration? You might read a great book or listen to that podcast your friend recommended. You might even take a stroll along the beach. But I can do you one better: go to a conference poster session where young stem cell scientists describe their research. That’s what I … Continue reading CCSF’s CIRM Bridges scholars: the future of stem cell research is in good hands
Month: May 2018
Making stem cell-derived liver cells to study fatty liver disease
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects approximately 30% of the population, with that number increasing to 75% in obese individuals. Shockingly, the number of cases is expected to increase 21% by the year 2030 in the United States alone. NAFLD refers to a broad range of liver conditions, which are all characterized by abnormally high … Continue reading Making stem cell-derived liver cells to study fatty liver disease
Can stem cells help people recover from a stroke? Join us for a Facebook Live event this Thursday, May 31 for the answers
Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the US and the leading cause of serious, long-term disability. But could stem cell therapies change that and help people who’ve had a brain attack? Could stem cells help repair the damage caused by a stroke and restore a person’s ability to speak normally, to … Continue reading Can stem cells help people recover from a stroke? Join us for a Facebook Live event this Thursday, May 31 for the answers
Stem Cell Roundup: Jake Javier’s amazing spirit; TV report highlights clinic offering unproven stem cell therapies
In the Roundup we usually focus on studies that highlight advances in stem cell research but today we’re going to do something a little different. Instead of relying on print for our stories, we’re turning to video. We begin with a piece about Jake Javier. Regular readers of our blog will remember that Jake is … Continue reading Stem Cell Roundup: Jake Javier’s amazing spirit; TV report highlights clinic offering unproven stem cell therapies
CIRM invests in stem cell clinical trial targeting lung cancer and promising research into osteoporosis and incontinence
The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with the most advanced stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is pretty grim, only between one and 10 percent. To address this devastating condition, the Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) today voted to invest almost $12 million in a team from UCLA that … Continue reading CIRM invests in stem cell clinical trial targeting lung cancer and promising research into osteoporosis and incontinence
Boosting immune system cells could offer a new approach to treating Lou Gehrig’s disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is one of those conditions that a lot of people know about but don’t know a lot about. If they are fortunate it will stay that way. ALS is a nasty neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons, the cells in the brain and spinal cord … Continue reading Boosting immune system cells could offer a new approach to treating Lou Gehrig’s disease
The Mother of Modern Medicine: Henrietta Lacks’ Portrait Unveiled at National Portrait Gallery
Back during my research scientist days, using HeLa cells for my experiments was as commonplace as a carpenter reaching for his hammer at a construction site. What makes these cells so handy is their robustness: they are easy to maintain in the lab where they divide indefinitely in petri dishes. Henrietta Lacks and the Story … Continue reading The Mother of Modern Medicine: Henrietta Lacks’ Portrait Unveiled at National Portrait Gallery
New findings about muscle stem cells reveals the potential for growing replacement organs
Chrissa Kioussi’s group at Oregon State University has made exciting advances in further unraveling the scientific mysteries of stem cells. In work detailed in Scientific Reports, this group found that muscle-specific stem cells actually have the ability to make multiple different cell types. Initially, this group was interested in understanding how gene expression changes during … Continue reading New findings about muscle stem cells reveals the potential for growing replacement organs
Stem Cell Roundup: Protein shows promise in treating deadliest form of breast cancer: mosquito spit primes our body for disease
Triple negative breast cancer is more aggressive and difficult to treat than other forms of the disease and, as a result, is more likely to spread throughout the body and to recur after treatment. Now a team at the University of Southern California have identified a protein that could help change that. The research, published … Continue reading Stem Cell Roundup: Protein shows promise in treating deadliest form of breast cancer: mosquito spit primes our body for disease
A scalable, clinic-friendly recipe for converting skin cells to muscle cells
Way back in 1987, about two decades before Shinya Yamanaka would go on to identify four proteins that can reprogram skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), Harold Weintraub’s lab identified the first “master control” protein, MyoD, which can directly convert a skin cell into a muscle cell. Though MyoD opened up new approaches … Continue reading A scalable, clinic-friendly recipe for converting skin cells to muscle cells
The Stem Cellar 