This is the way things often go in science: One group announces a breakthrough. Yah! Then for the next several years, scientists all over the world replicate and improve on that breakthrough until it's finally believable and widely useful.To people outside science who read about the initial breakthrough, this may look a lot like scientists … Continue reading Improved technique for directly converting skin to neurons

Richmond-based Sangamo BioSciences has been making a lot of news lately with their gene editing technology. Theirs is the technique being used in CIRM'S HIV Disease Team Award to John Zaia at The City of Hope (summarized in this San Francisco Business Journal story). Sangamo's so-called zinc finger technology can recognize a specific location in … Continue reading CIRM HIV/AIDS disease team technology makes news

CIRM grantees at University of California Irvine have used human neural stem cells to help alleviate brain damage that occurs after radiation to treat brain tumors.Radiation can be an effective way of treating tumors in the brain, but the radiation also kills surrounding healthy tissue in addition to the destroying the tumor. Even if the … Continue reading Stem cells improve brain function after radiation therapy

Researchers in Japan have grown functional teeth using cells taken from a mouse molar as starting material. The group grew these cells for a few days in the lab, then placed them into a tooth-shaped mold and implanted the mold into the mouse kidney where they were left to grow for about two months.What the … Continue reading Whole teeth grown from molar stem cells in mice

It was a small step for science, but a big step for mankind — one man in particular. A man in Sweden recently received a new trachea (windpipe) made from synthetic material seeded with cells from the patient's bone marrow. (The last shuttle launch on Friday has brought on aerospace wordplay.)The big step for mankind … Continue reading First fully synthetic windpipe saves a life without risk of rejection

Today CIRM's Bridges to Stem Cell Research students are meeting and greeting some of the state's most notable stem cell scientists at their annual meeting in Burlingame, CA. For many of these undergraduate and masters-level students, it's a opportunity they would never have had without CIRM's Bridges internship program. First established in 2009, the Bridges … Continue reading CIRM Bridges to stem cell research students talk science and careers

CIRM grantees at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California have succeeded in growing normal-looking small intestines in mice.In a press release, the senior author Tracy Grikscheit said:“The small intestine is an exquisitely regenerative organ.  The cells are constantly being lost and replaced over the course of our entire lives," she explained. … Continue reading Tissue engineering produces small intestine, possible help for pre-term infants

CIRM grantee Paul Knoepfler at UC Davis has been blogging about stem cell science for a while now. He recently expanded his outreach to include a regular podcast. It's worth checking out. He's listing the most recent podcast at the top of his main blog page: http://www.ipscell.com/ .Knoepfler includes some science, some policy, and a … Continue reading A welcome voice in stem cell communication – a new podcast launches

In February 1997, a friend and fellow science writer had been assigned to write a story about why mammals were unlikely to ever be cloned. A few days later that assignment changed with the February 22, 1997 announcement of Dolly the sheep — the first cloned mammal.Although the announcement from the Roslin Institute in Scotland … Continue reading Happy Birthday! Dolly the first cloned mammal turns 15

Guest blog by Lorraine and Chris Stiehl, CIRM Advocacy CoordinatorsFor those of you who follow this CIRM Blog on a regular basis, you must feel as excited as we are that progress in stem cell research is progressing at a rapid rate. We feel privileged that we are helping to coordinate the patient advocate effort … Continue reading Listening to the voice of the patient advocates