New Study Shows CIRM-Supported Therapy Cures More than 95% of Children Born with a Fatal Immune Disorder

Dr. Donald B. Kohn; Photo courtesy UCLA A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that an experimental form of stem cell and gene therapy has cured 48 of 50 children born with a deadly condition called ADA-SCID. Children with ADA-SCID, (severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency) lack a key … Continue reading New Study Shows CIRM-Supported Therapy Cures More than 95% of Children Born with a Fatal Immune Disorder

CIRM funded study uses drug development in a dish for treatment of heart arrhythmias

Image Credit: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cardiac (heart) arrhythmias occur when electrical impulses that coordinate your heartbeats don't work properly, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or in an irregular manner. In the U.S. alone, almost one million individuals are hospitalized every year for heart arrhythmias. Close to 300,000 … Continue reading CIRM funded study uses drug development in a dish for treatment of heart arrhythmias

Identifying the visually impaired patients most likely to benefit from jCyte’s stem cell therapy

We have written about jCyte many times on The Stem Cellar. For one reason, they are showing really encouraging results in their treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP). And now they have taken an even deeper dive into those results and identified which patients may be most likely to benefit from the therapy. RP is a … Continue reading Identifying the visually impaired patients most likely to benefit from jCyte’s stem cell therapy

New technique maps out diversity and location of cells in tissue or tumor

Image Description: Alex Marson is part of a team of researchers who developed a new technique to map the specialized diversity and spatial location of individual cells within a tissue or tumor. Photo Credit: Anastasiia Sapon All the cells in your body work together and each can have a different role. Their individual function not … Continue reading New technique maps out diversity and location of cells in tissue or tumor

CIRM funded stem cell therapy could one day help stroke and dementia patients

Image Description: Microscope images showing brain tissue that has been damaged by white matter stroke (left) and then repaired by the new glial cell therapy (right). Myelin (seen in red), is a substance that protects the connections between neurons and is lost due to white matter stroke. As seen at right, the glial cell therapy … Continue reading CIRM funded stem cell therapy could one day help stroke and dementia patients

CIRM Board Approves Clinical Trials for Blood Cancer and Pediatric Brain Tumors

Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $14.4 million for two new clinical trials for blood cancer and pediatric brain tumors. These awards bring the total number of CIRM-funded clinical trials to 70.  $6.0 million was awarded to Immune-Onc Therapeutics to conduct a clinical trial for patients with acute … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Clinical Trials for Blood Cancer and Pediatric Brain Tumors

Positive results for patients enrolled in CIRM-funded trial of a rare pediatric disease

Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I) is a rare pediatric disease that prevents patients from combating infections. This leads to recurring bacterial and fungal infections that respond poorly to antibiotics, require frequent hospitalizations, and can be fatal. It is caused by a mutation in a specific gene that causes low levels of a protein called CD18. The … Continue reading Positive results for patients enrolled in CIRM-funded trial of a rare pediatric disease

Saying thanks and farewell to a friend

Tom Howing In this job you get to meet a lot of remarkable people, none more so than the patients who volunteer to take part in what are giant experiments. They are courageous pioneers, willing to be among the first people to ever try a new therapy, knowing that it may not help them and, … Continue reading Saying thanks and farewell to a friend

Stem cell therapy for diabetic foot ulcers shows promise in new study

For individuals with diabetes, the body's inability to properly control blood sugar levels can lead to a wide range of other problems as time passes. One major issue is a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), an open sore or wound that is commonly located on the bottom of the foot and caused by poor blood circulation … Continue reading Stem cell therapy for diabetic foot ulcers shows promise in new study

CIRM funding helps improve immune cell therapy to combat HIV

Image description: T cell infected with HIV. Image Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) In June of last year we wrote about how Dr. Scott Kitchen and his team at UCLA are engineering blood forming stem cells in order to fight HIV, a potentially deadly virus that attacks the immune system and … Continue reading CIRM funding helps improve immune cell therapy to combat HIV