A few weeks ago, my colleague used this space to discuss the second and third papers showing teams had turned skin cells directly into neurons, noting that this replication of research results is essential to verifying the initial breakthrough while refining and improving it. She noted that only after much replication and refinement would she … Continue reading A fifth group turns skin to neurons, creating a model for Alzheimer’s disease

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health announced this morning that Mahendra Rao will become the first director of the new NIH Intramural Center for Regenerative Medicine (NIH-CRM). It will be good for CIRM to have someone in this new role who is very knowledgable about us and has been an active supporter … Continue reading NIH names friend of CIRM as head of its new stem cell center

Smarts, education and hard work will get you far, but the big leaps in science take something more -- creativity. That's the thinking behind an innovative CIRM-funded summer program that encourages the most creative high school students to spend time working in a stem cell lab. The CIRM Creativity Awards recipients are meeting in Oakland … Continue reading High school students get creative in California stem cell labs

Recent research from the University of Iowa suggests that people with cystic fibrosis have fewer of the stem cells that would normally repair the airway. In most people, glands in the airway secrete bacteria-killing factors to help fight infection. These glands are also home to airway stem cells that rebuild the glands and keep them … Continue reading Lung airway stem cells awry in cystic fibrosis

Stem cell science is set to get a boost from an unlikely source: outer space. It turns out that techniques devised to help telescopes peer through the blur of the earth's atmosphere could help scientists peak more deeply into tissues. If the technique, called adaptive optics or AO, works it might prove useful for scientists … Continue reading Tracking stem cells using tricks learned in outer space

Today U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth dismissed a lawsuit that has been creating uncertainty for stem cell scientists for almost a year. The Washington Post quotes Lamberth's opinion:“This Court, following the D.C. Circuit’s reasoning and conclusions, must find that defendants reasonably interpreted the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to permit funding for human embryonic stem cell research because … Continue reading A history of the stem cell lawsuit & what it meant to California scientists

The North County Times had a good story yesterday about Fred Gage's new role as the president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Gage is a renowned stem cell scientists at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, which also wrote about his new role.Gage was the first to show that people do, in … Continue reading Discoverer of brain stem cells becomes president of ISSCR

On July 8, 2011 the CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research trainees met in Burlingame, CA to share results from their research internships. Their enthusiasm for stem cell science made for a fun poster session where the students had a chance to share their internship research with other students, with CIRM staff and board members, … Continue reading CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research students talk science in our new video

Each month CIRM President Alan Trounson gives his perspective on recently published papers he thinks will be valuable in moving the field of stem cell research forward. This month’s report, along with an archive of past reports, is available on the CIRM website.In the past month one paper struck me as especially important because it … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — July’s stem cell research highlights