Every year California performs around 100 kidney transplants in children but, on average, around 50 of these patients will have their body reject the transplant. These children then have to undergo regular dialysis while waiting for a new organ. Even the successful transplants require a lifetime of immunosuppression medications. These medications can prevent rejection but … Continue reading Making transplants easier for kids, and charting a new approach to fighting solid tumors.
Gastrointestinal Disease
Stem cell agency invests in therapy using killer cells to target colorectal, breast and ovarian cancers
While there have been some encouraging advances in treating cancer in recent decades, there are still many cancers that either resist treatment or recur after treatment. Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved investing in a therapy targeting some of these hard-to-treat tumors. BioEclipse Therapeutics Inc. was awarded nearly … Continue reading Stem cell agency invests in therapy using killer cells to target colorectal, breast and ovarian cancers
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
Stem Cell All-Stars, All For You
Dr. Larry Goldstein, UC San Diego It’s not often you get a chance to hear some of the brightest minds around talk about their stem cell research and what it could mean for you, me and everyone else. That’s why we’re delighted to be bringing some of the sharpest tools in the stem cell shed … Continue reading Stem Cell All-Stars, All For You
Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half
Some of the stars of our Annual Report It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into … Continue reading Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half
CIRM invests in stem cell clinical trial targeting lung cancer and promising research into osteoporosis and incontinence
The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with the most advanced stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is pretty grim, only between one and 10 percent. To address this devastating condition, the Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) today voted to invest almost $12 million in a team from UCLA that … Continue reading CIRM invests in stem cell clinical trial targeting lung cancer and promising research into osteoporosis and incontinence
Stem cell-based gut-on-a-chip: a new path to personalized medicine
“Personalized medicine” is a trendy phrase these days, frequently used in TV ads for hospitals, newspaper articles about medicine’s future and even here in the Stem Cellar. The basic gist is that by analyzing a patient’s unique biology, a physician can use disease treatments that are most likely to work in that individual. This concept … Continue reading Stem cell-based gut-on-a-chip: a new path to personalized medicine
CIRM interviews Lorenz Studer: 2017 recipient of the Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize [Video]
For eight long years, researchers who were trying to develop a stem cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s disease – an incurable movement disorder marked by uncontrollable shaking, body stiffness and difficulty walking – found themselves lost in the proverbial wilderness. In initial studies, rodent stem cells were successfully coaxed to specialize into dopamine-producing nerve cells, the … Continue reading CIRM interviews Lorenz Studer: 2017 recipient of the Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize [Video]
Stem cell-derived mini-intestines reveal bacteria’s key role in building up a newborn’s gut
The following factoid may induce an identity crisis for some people but it is true that our bodies carry more microbes than human cells. Some studies in 1970’s estimated the ratio at 10:1 though more recent calculations suggest we’re merely half microbe, half human. Because microbes are much smaller than human cells they make up … Continue reading Stem cell-derived mini-intestines reveal bacteria’s key role in building up a newborn’s gut
Stories that caught our eye last week: dying cells trigger stem cells, CRISPR videogames and an obesity-stem cell link
A dying cell’s last breath triggers stem cell division. Most cells in your body are in a constant state of turnover. The cells of your lungs, for instance, replace themselves every 2 to 3 weeks and, believe it or not, you get a new intestine every 2 to 3 days. We can thank adult stem cells … Continue reading Stories that caught our eye last week: dying cells trigger stem cells, CRISPR videogames and an obesity-stem cell link
The Stem Cellar 