I have spent much of my career working with faculty at schools on both coasts, Stanford and Harvard, convincing them to rethink the way they talk about their science, insisting they make it more understandable to the public.For many, I had my work cut out just convincing them this was worth the effort. But others … Continue reading Don’s favorite elevator pitches clarify complex science

A year and two days ago, our grantees at Stanford University led by Irv Weissman described their work with a protein that’s found on the outside of cancer cells. They had devised an antibody that latches on to this protein and, in the process, brings those cancer cells to the attention of the immune system, … Continue reading Single drug shrinks multiple tumors in mice

If we build it, will they come?That’s the question Amy, Kevin, and I (aka the CIRM film crew) were asking a few Thursday mornings ago in the lobby outside the CIRM Grantee Meeting. All systems were go with our makeshift film studio: camera on the tripod – check; microphones live – check; lighting in position … Continue reading Todd’s favorite stem cell pitches: enthusiastic students and post-docs

Last week Bradley Fikes of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote about work by our grantee Jeanne Loring, who is helping to develop a therapy for Parkinson’s disease using funds raised by mountain climbing.Many of her projects are funded by us (here’s a list of her awards), but this one is different. A group of … Continue reading Climb a mountain, get a stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s?

Kevin McCormack explains the concept of the elevator pitch in our promo videoMy colleague Amy Adams has created a monster. I don’t think she meant to, it just happened by accident. But truth be told, we’re rather happy she did. It began innocently enough with an article in Nature about scientists trying to put together … Continue reading Short descriptions of stroke, cancer, Parkinson’s and HIV/AIDS projects win our Elevator Pitch Challenge

Frozen iPS cells, Photo courtesy of William Collins in the lab of Deepak Srivastava at the Gladstone InstitutesWhen the discovery of reprogrammed stem cells, so-called iPS cells, won the Nobel Prize last October, these versatile cells were generally portrayed as offering the promise of changing medicine in the distant future. But in reality they are … Continue reading Stem cells in a dish reveal drug’s toxic side

New research from our grantees at Stanford harkens back to my own days in graduate school. I was toiling long hours in a lab trying to understand what makes cells become different from each other. I mean think about it. One day, an animal is just a fertilized egg. Then it divides into two cells, … Continue reading One of these cells is not like the others, but how?

A few weeks ago we announced our CIRM Elevator Pitch Challenge. In the video above you can see our own Kevin McCormack explaining the challenge--each scientist has to explain their research in 30 seconds or less in a way that a lay person would understand.We ended up with 58 pitches, many recorded at our grantee … Continue reading CIRM Elevator Pitch entries are in, stay tuned for winners

CIRM grantees at UCLA have modified immune cells to fight melanoma—a deadly form of skin cancer. People with this cancer don't have many options available for treatment. The idea was to teach immune cells to recognize the cancerous cells and fight them off like they'd fight off an infection.To do this, the group took blood … Continue reading Teaching the immune system to fight skin cancer

photo courtesy Fir0002/FlagstaffotosIf you are a winemaker you want to have easy access to top quality grapes. If you are a chef you want to be able to get top-notch produce every day. And if you are a stem cell researcher you want to be able to work with high quality stem cell lines that … Continue reading Like Top Grapes for Fine Wine, CIRM Advancing Quality Stem Cell Collection For Disease Research