At CIRM, our goal is to bring stem cell therapies to patients with unmet medical needs, and we do that by funding the most promising and innovative research in regenerative medicine. A critical component of this goal is to support our patient advocates and make sure that their voices are heard. At this year’s World … Continue reading The Critical Role of Patient Advocates in Accelerating Stem Cell Cures
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
CIRM Scholar Spotlight: Berkeley’s Maroof Adil on stem cell transplants for Parkinson’s disease
Stem cell therapy has a lot of potential for Parkinson’s patients and the scientists that study it. One of our very own CIRM scholars, Maroof Adil, is making it his mission to develop stem cell based therapies to treat brain degenerating diseases like Parkinson’s. Maroof got his undergraduate degrees from MIT in both Chemical Engineering … Continue reading CIRM Scholar Spotlight: Berkeley’s Maroof Adil on stem cell transplants for Parkinson’s disease
UCLA scientists find new targets for late-stage prostate cancer
Prostate cancer, which currently affects 3 million men in the United States, is no longer a death sentence if caught early. The five-year survival rate is very high (~98%) because of effective treatments like hormone therapy, chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation—and for many men with slow progressing tumors, the wait-and-watch approach offers an alternative to treatment. … Continue reading UCLA scientists find new targets for late-stage prostate cancer
Type 1 Diabetes Trial Explained Whiteboard Video Style
There’s a saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. With complicated science however, pictures don’t always do these topics justice. Here’s where videos come to the rescue. Today’s topic is type 1 diabetes and a CIRM-funded clinical trial headed by the San Diego company ViaCyte hoping to develop a cure for patients with this disease. Instead of writing an entire … Continue reading Type 1 Diabetes Trial Explained Whiteboard Video Style
Eyeing Stem Cell Therapies for Vision Loss
Back by popular demand (well, at least a handful of you demanded it!) we’re pleased to present the third installment of our Stem Cells in Your Face video series. Episodes one and two set out to explain – in a light-hearted, engaging and clear way – the latest progress in CIRM-funded stem cell research related … Continue reading Eyeing Stem Cell Therapies for Vision Loss
New type of diabetes caused by old age may be treatable
I’m going to tell you a secret: I love sugar. I love it so much that as a little kid my mom used to tell me scary stories about how my teeth would fall out and that I might get diabetes one day if I ate too many sweets. Thankfully, none of these things happened. … Continue reading New type of diabetes caused by old age may be treatable
Have your cake and eat it too: Stem cells without the risk of tumors
A real stem cell tourism story Back in 2001, an Israeli boy suffering from Ataxia Telangiectasia, a genetic brain disease that affects movement, traveled to Russia for an unregulated stem cell treatment. His brain and spinal cord were injected with fetal stem cells though the exact composition of those cells was not known. Four years … Continue reading Have your cake and eat it too: Stem cells without the risk of tumors
Gene editing in blood stem cells just got easier
Genome editing is a field of science that’s been around for awhile, but has experienced an explosion of activity and interest in recent years. Chances are that even your grandmother has heard about the recent story where for the first time, gene editing saved a one-year-old girl from dying of leukemia. Microsoft word versus genome … Continue reading Gene editing in blood stem cells just got easier
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: mini-brains in a dish, blood stem cells and state funded stem cell research
Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. Great review of brains in a dish. The veteran Associated Press science journalist Malcolm Ritter produced the most thorough overview I have seen of the … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: mini-brains in a dish, blood stem cells and state funded stem cell research
Glimpse the future at a fun-filled Festival of Science
Imagine a giant circus but instead of performing animals you have a Robot Zoo; instead of scary clowns you have colorful chemicals in glass beakers. That’s what AT&T Park will look like this Saturday when the 5th Annual Discovery Day opens its doors. It’s a hands-on, eye-opening, brain-engaging celebration of science for everyone. It’s a … Continue reading Glimpse the future at a fun-filled Festival of Science
The Stem Cellar 