It’s not an easy thing to bring an entire Board of Directors to tears, but four extraordinary people and their families managed to do just that at the last CIRM Board meeting of 2016. The four are patients who have undergone life-saving or life-changing stem cell therapies that were funded by our agency. The … Continue reading Stem cell heroes: patients who had life-saving, life-changing treatments inspire CIRM Board
Genetic Disorders
Translating great stem cell ideas into effective therapies
In science, there are a lot of terms that could easily mystify people without a research background; “translational” is not one of them. Translational research simply means to take findings from basic research and advance them into something that is ready to be tested in people in a clinical trial. Yesterday our Governing Board approved … Continue reading Translating great stem cell ideas into effective therapies
Funding stem cell research targeting a rare and life-threatening disease in children
If you have never heard of cystinosis you should consider yourself fortunate. It’s a rare condition caused by an inherited genetic mutation. It hits early and it hits hard. Children with cystinosis are usually diagnosed before age 2 and are in end-stage kidney failure by the time they are 9. If that’s not bad enough … Continue reading Funding stem cell research targeting a rare and life-threatening disease in children
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: improving heart care, fixing sickle cell disease, stem cells & sugar
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. Using “disease in a dish” model to improve heart care Medications we take to improve our quality of life might actually be putting our lives … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: improving heart care, fixing sickle cell disease, stem cells & sugar
Multi-Talented Stem Cells: The Many Ways to Use Them in the Clinic
CIRM kicked off the 2016 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Conference in San Francisco with a public stem cell event yesterday that brought scientists, patients, patient advocates and members of the general public together to discuss the many ways stem cells are being used in the clinic to develop treatments for patients with … Continue reading Multi-Talented Stem Cells: The Many Ways to Use Them in the Clinic
Helping stem cells sleep can boost their power to heal
Mighty mouse muscle cells We are often told that sleep is one of the most important elements of a healthy lifestyle, that it helps in the healing and repair of our heart and blood vessels – among other things. It turns out that sleep, or something very similar, is equally important for stem cells, helping … Continue reading Helping stem cells sleep can boost their power to heal
Embryos with abnormal chromosomes can repair themselves
Like an increasing number of women, Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz waited later in life to have kids and was pregnant at 44 with her second child. Because older moms have an increased risk of giving birth to children with genetic disorders, Zernicka-Goetz opted to have an early genetic screening test about 12 weeks into her pregnancy. The … Continue reading Embryos with abnormal chromosomes can repair themselves
Rare disease underdogs come out on top at CIRM Board meeting
It seems like an oxymoron but one in ten Americans has a rare disease. With more than 7,000 known rare diseases it’s easy to see how each one could affect thousands of individuals and still be considered a rare or orphan condition. Only 5% of rare diseases have FDA approved therapies People with rare … Continue reading Rare disease underdogs come out on top at CIRM Board meeting
Rare Disease Day, a chance to raise awareness and hope.
Battling a deadly disease like cancer or Alzheimer’s is difficult; but battling a rare and deadly disease is doubly so. At least with common diseases there is a lot of research seeking to develop new treatments. With rare diseases there is often very little research, and so there are fewer options for treatment. Even just … Continue reading Rare Disease Day, a chance to raise awareness and hope.
Timing is everything: could CRISPR gene editing push CIRM to change its rules on funding stem cell research?
Talk about timely. When we decided, several months ago, to hold a Standards Working Group (SWG) meeting to talk about the impact of CRISPR, a tool that is transforming the field of human gene editing, we had no idea that our meeting would fall smack in the midst of a flurry of news stories about … Continue reading Timing is everything: could CRISPR gene editing push CIRM to change its rules on funding stem cell research?
The Stem Cellar 