Jake Javier and his parents at Duke University A spinal cord injury (SCI) is devastating, changing a person’s life in an instant. Every year, around the world, between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury. Most of these are caused by trauma to the spinal column, thereby affecting the spinal cord's ability to … Continue reading Update on spinal cord injury patient enrolled in CIRM-funded stem cell clinical trial
Asterias Biotherapeutics
Hitting our Goals: Scoring a half century
Way, way back in 2015 – seems like a lifetime ago doesn’t it – the team at CIRM sat down and planned out our Big 6 goals for the next five years. The end result was a Strategic Plan that was bold, ambitious and set us on course to do great things or kill ourselves … Continue reading Hitting our Goals: Scoring a half century
Women who have changed, and are changing, the world
The problem with trying to write about something like Women’s History Month is where do you start? Even if you narrow it down to women in science the list is vast. Marie Curie I suppose you could always start with Maria Salomea Skłodowska who is better known as Marie Curie. She not only discovered radium … Continue reading Women who have changed, and are changing, the world
Cures, clinical trials and unmet medical needs
When you have a great story to tell there’s no shame in repeating it as often as you can. After all, not everyone gets to hear first time around. Or second or third time. So that’s why we wanted to give you another opportunity to tune into some of the great presentations and discussions at … Continue reading Cures, clinical trials and unmet medical needs
CIRM-funded kidney transplant procedure eyeing faster approval
Kidney transplant surgery. Medeor Therapeutics, which is running a CIRM-funded clinical trial to help people getting kidney transplants, just got some really good news. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just granted their product Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation. That’s a big deal because it means they may be able to apply … Continue reading CIRM-funded kidney transplant procedure eyeing faster approval
Meet the people who are changing the future
Kristin MacDonald Every so often you hear a story and your first reaction is “oh, I have to share this with someone, anyone, everyone.” That’s what happened to me the other day. I was talking with Kristin MacDonald, an amazing woman, a fierce patient advocate and someone who took part in a CIRM-funded clinical trial … Continue reading Meet the people who are changing the future
Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team
On December 12th we hosted our latest 'Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team' event. This time around we really did mean team. We had a host of our Science Officers answering questions from friends and supporters of CIRM. We got a lot of questions and didn't have enough time to address them all. So … Continue reading Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team
Good news for two CIRM-supported therapies
Jake Javier, a patient in the spinal cord injury stem cell therapy clinical trial It’s always satisfying to see two projects you have supported for a long time do well. That’s particularly true when the projects in question are targeting conditions that have no other effective therapies. This week we learned that a clinical trial … Continue reading Good news for two CIRM-supported therapies
One year later, spinal cord therapy still looks promising
Jake Javier - participant in the SCIStar study The beginning of a clinical trial, particularly the first time a new therapy is being tested in people, is often a time of equal parts anticipation and nervousness. Anticipation, because you have been working to this point for many years. Nervousness, because you have never tested this … Continue reading One year later, spinal cord therapy still looks promising
Rats, research and the road to new therapies
Don Reed Don Reed has been a champion of CIRM even before there was a CIRM. He's a pioneer in pushing for funding for stem cell research and now he's working hard to raise awareness about the difference that funding is making. In a recent article on Daily Kos, Don highlighted one of the less … Continue reading Rats, research and the road to new therapies
The Stem Cellar 