On Sunday the UK Telegraph reported the closing of a stem cell clinic in Germany that has been the source of international concern. Last year, a clinic offering stem cell cures in Costa Rica was shut down by the country's health ministry.In both cases, the concern came from claims that injected stem cells would cure … Continue reading German stem cell clinic shut down amidst safety concerns
Author: cirmweb
Celebrating National Cancer Research Month with a cancer stem cell round-up
In celebration of National Cancer Research Month, our colleagues at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have posted a series of blog entries about cancer research at their institute. The latest installment includes CIRM grantee Robert Wechsler-Reya, who moved to California from Duke University on a CIRM Research Leadership Award.According to their blog:Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya, who directs … Continue reading Celebrating National Cancer Research Month with a cancer stem cell round-up
How a stem cell forms a neuron
CIRM grantees at Sanford-Burnham have published another paper using an embryonic stem cell model to understand one of the earliest steps in human nervous system development. (We've blogged about their work before here.) The group led by Alexey Terskikh has been trying to understand how a group of cells called the neural crest form nerves, … Continue reading How a stem cell forms a neuron
Guest blogger Roman Reed: spinal cord injury stem cell trials get $25 million boost from CIRM
From the editor: Yesterday the CIRM governing board approved a $25 million loan to help fund a trial testing the use of an embryonic stem cell-derived therapy for spinal cord injury. Here's our press release. Our guest blogger Roman Reed was injured in a football accident and has since fought tirelessly for spinal cord injury … Continue reading Guest blogger Roman Reed: spinal cord injury stem cell trials get $25 million boost from CIRM
U.S. Appeals Court decision–good news, but not the final word
Nine months after a U.S. district court first sent federal funding for embryonic stem cell research into a tailspin, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that those opposing embryonic stem cell research were unlikely to win their case. The ruling means that, for now, federal agencies such as the NIH can continue funding embryonic stem … Continue reading U.S. Appeals Court decision–good news, but not the final word
Genes at the heart of heart deformities found through stem cell studies
CIRM grantees at The Gladstone Institutes have, over the past few years, been hard at work learning about the origins of heart deformities by studying how stem cells mature into heart tissue.What they've learned is that small relatives of DNA, called micro-RNAs, help control when and how cells mature into heart tissue (blogged about here … Continue reading Genes at the heart of heart deformities found through stem cell studies
CIRM grantees directly create neuronal stem cells for research and therapies
CIRM grantees at the Scripps Research Institute, University of California, San Diego and Sanford-Burnham Research Institute have taken an intriguing step toward producing neural progenitor cells for research or therapies. The team, led by Sheng Ding who has recently moved to the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, started with mouse skin cells and converted them … Continue reading CIRM grantees directly create neuronal stem cells for research and therapies
Stem cell hope, hype, and hypocrisy according to Arthur Caplan
Ethicist Arthur Caplan had an excellent piece about stem cell hype last week on Science Progress, a publication of the Center for American Progress. Caplan is Director of the Center for Bioethics and the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.He starts by saying that yes, some have over-hyped the promise … Continue reading Stem cell hope, hype, and hypocrisy according to Arthur Caplan
Guest blogger Alan Trounson – April’s stem cell highlights
Alan Trounson is President of CIRMSince I arrived at CIRM late in 2007 I have maintained a tradition of presenting some of the top science journal papers from the previous month or two at each of our Board meetings. Beginning last month, I decided this would be easier to digest in a written document than … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson – April’s stem cell highlights
CIRM a leader in iPS cell publications
Yesterday, stem cell blogger and newly tenured CIRM grantee at UC Davis Paul Knoepfler had an interesting blog entry on iPS cell publications. After mining the literature for publications with the phrases iPS cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, induced pluripotent or induced pluripotency in the title, he found a consistent increase in publications each year … Continue reading CIRM a leader in iPS cell publications
The Stem Cellar 