Anyone who knows anything about CIRM knows about Bob Klein. He’s the main author and driving force behind both Proposition 71 and Proposition 14, the voter-approved ballot initiatives that first created and then refunded CIRM. It’s safe to say that without Bob there’d be no CIRM. Recently we had the great good fortune to sit … Continue reading A conversation with Bob Klein about the past, present and future of CIRM
All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we look at a way of … Continue reading A look back: CIRM funded trial aims to help patients suffering from chronic viral infections
You don’t need to analyze any data to know for yourself that Evangelina Vaccaro’s experimental stem cell therapy has cured her of a devastating, often fatal disease of the immune system. All you have to do is look at a photo or video of her to see that she’s now a happy, healthy 5-year-old with a … Continue reading Bye Bye bubble baby disease: promising results from stem cell gene therapy trial for SCID
WHY I WROTE “CALIFORNIA CURES” By Don C. Reed It was Wednesday, June 13th, 2018, the launch day for my new book, “CALIFORNIA CURES: How the California Stem Cell Research Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease!” As I stood in front of the audience of scientists, CIRM staff members, patient advocates, I thought to myself, … Continue reading The story behind the book about the Stem Cell Agency
To get anywhere you need a good map, and you need to check it constantly to make sure you are still on the right path and haven’t strayed off course. A year ago the CIRM Board gave us a map, a Strategic Plan, that laid out our course for the next five years. Our Annual … Continue reading Cured by Stem Cells
If you have read our 2016 Annual Report (and if you haven’t you should, it’s brilliant) or just seen the cover you’ll know that it features very prominently a young girl named Evie Padilla Vaccaro. Evie was born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency or SCID – also known as “bubble baby disease”; we’ve written about it … Continue reading CIRM-funded life-saving stem cell therapy gets nod of approval from FDA
It’s not an easy thing to bring an entire Board of Directors to tears, but four extraordinary people and their families managed to do just that at the last CIRM Board meeting of 2016. The four are patients who have undergone life-saving or life-changing stem cell therapies that were funded by our agency. The … Continue reading Stem cell heroes: patients who had life-saving, life-changing treatments inspire CIRM Board
The world is full of skeptics. Remember when you first heard about self-driving cars? I’m sure that information was met with comments like, “When pigs fly!” or “I’ll believe it when I see it!” Well, it turns out that the best way to get people to believe something is possible, is to show them. And … Continue reading Seeing is Believing: New Video on the Power of Stem Cells
Poopy diapers, ear-splitting cries, and sleepless nights: sure, the first few weeks of parenthood are grueling but those other moments of cuddling and kissing your little baby are pure bliss. That wasn’t the case for Alysia and Christian Padilla-Vacarro of Corona, California. Close contact with their infant daughter Evangelina, born in 2012, was off limits. … Continue reading UCLA team cures infants of often-fatal “bubble baby” disease by inserting gene in their stem cells; sickle cell disease is next target
The Stem Cellar 