I grew up in Dallas in the 80’s. Needless to say, I was a diehard fan of the Dallas Cowboys National Football League (NFL) team and January 10, 1982 will forever be seared into my memory. Late in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys were leading the San Francisco 49ers 27-21 in the conference championship with … Continue reading A Cowboys Fan’s Take on The Catch and Dwight Clark’s Passing Due to ALS
ALS
Boosting immune system cells could offer a new approach to treating Lou Gehrig’s disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is one of those conditions that a lot of people know about but don’t know a lot about. If they are fortunate it will stay that way. ALS is a nasty neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons, the cells in the brain and spinal cord … Continue reading Boosting immune system cells could offer a new approach to treating Lou Gehrig’s disease
Straight to brain: A better approach to ALS cell therapies?
Getting the go ahead to begin a clinical trial by no means marks an end to a research team’s laboratory studies. A clinical trial is merely one experiment and is designed to answer a specific set of questions about a specific course of treatment. There will inevitably be more questions to pursue back in the … Continue reading Straight to brain: A better approach to ALS cell therapies?
Stem Cell Roundup: Crafty Cancer, Fighting Viruses, and Brainstorm ALS Trial Expands to Canada
TGIF! Here is your weekly dose of stem cell news... Shapeshifting cancer cells This week’s awesome stem cell photo comes with a bizarre story and bonus video footage. Researchers at Duke University were studying lung tumor samples and discovered something that didn’t quite belong. Inside the lung tumors were miniature parts of the digestive system … Continue reading Stem Cell Roundup: Crafty Cancer, Fighting Viruses, and Brainstorm ALS Trial Expands to Canada
Tiny blood vessels in the brain can spur the growth of spinal motor neurons
Last week, researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center added a new piece to the complex puzzle of what causes neurodegenerative disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The team discovered that the tiny blood vessels in our brains do more than provide nutrients to and remove waste products from our brain tissue. It turns out that these … Continue reading Tiny blood vessels in the brain can spur the growth of spinal motor neurons
Stem Cell Roundup: hESCs turn 20, tracking cancer stem cells, new ALS gene ID’d
Stem Cell Image of the Week This week’s stunning stem cell image is brought to you by researchers in the Brivanlou Lab at Rockefeller University. What looks like the center of a sunflower is actual a ball of neural rosettes derived from human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Neural rosettes are structures that contain neural stem … Continue reading Stem Cell Roundup: hESCs turn 20, tracking cancer stem cells, new ALS gene ID’d
Inspiring Video: UC Irvine Stem Cell Trial Gives Orange County Woman Hope in Her Fight Against ALS
Last week, we lost one of our greatest, most influential scientific minds. Stephen Hawking, a famous British theoretical physicist and author of “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes”, passed away at the age of 76. Hawking lived most of his adult life in a wheelchair because he suffered from … Continue reading Inspiring Video: UC Irvine Stem Cell Trial Gives Orange County Woman Hope in Her Fight Against ALS
Breaking the isolation of rare diseases
How can something that affects 30 million Americans, one in ten people in the US, be called rare? But that’s the case with people who have a rare disease. There are around 7,000 different diseases that are categorized as rare because they affect fewer than 200,000 people. Less than five percent of these diseases have … Continue reading Breaking the isolation of rare diseases
CIRM stories that caught our eye: UCSD team stops neuromuscular disease in mice, ALS trial enrolls 1st patients and Q&A with CIRM Prez
Ordinarily, we end each week at the Stem Cellar with a few stem cell stories that caught our eye. But, for the past couple of weeks we've been busy churning out stories related to our Month of CIRM blog series, which we hope you've found enlightening. To round out the series, we present this "caught … Continue reading CIRM stories that caught our eye: UCSD team stops neuromuscular disease in mice, ALS trial enrolls 1st patients and Q&A with CIRM Prez
Can Stem Cell Therapies Help ALS Patients?
A scientist’s fifteen-year journey to develop a stem cell-based therapy that could one day help ALS patients. “Can stem cells help me Clive?” The sentence appeared slowly on a computer screen, each character separated by a pause while its author searched for the next character using a device controlled by his eye muscle. The person … Continue reading Can Stem Cell Therapies Help ALS Patients?