Emily Smith, CIRM Bridges student The California Institute for Regenerative (CIRM) has a number of education programs geared towards training the next generation of stem cell and gene therapy researchers. Each student comes to the program with their own motivation, their own reasons for wanting to be a scientist. This is Emily Smith's story. Surrounded … Continue reading A grandmother’s legacy, a stem cell scientist
Disease Areas
Life lessons learned in the CIRM summer intern program
SPARK poster session; Photo by Esteban Cortez When I was in high school I spent my summers working in a shoe shop and playing soccer with my mates. It never occurred to me that I could do something really worthwhile with that time. So, when I meet the high school students who took part in … Continue reading Life lessons learned in the CIRM summer intern program
Two common viruses could trigger Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers from Tufts University and the University of Oxford have found that two common viruses —the varicella zoster and herpes simplex viruses— could trigger Alzheimer's disease. Varicella zoster (VZV) is an extremely common virus causes which causes chickenpox. Once cured of the first infection, the virus tends to linger in peripheral nerves where they remain dormant. When these dormant viruses are … Continue reading Two common viruses could trigger Alzheimer’s disease
How CIRM contributed to City of Hope study helping man with HIV into long-term remission
The news that a stem cell transplant at City of Hope helped a man with HIV go into long-term remission made banner headlines around the world. As it should. It’s a huge achievement, particularly as the 66-year-old man had been living with HIV since 1988. What wasn’t reported was that work supported by the California … Continue reading How CIRM contributed to City of Hope study helping man with HIV into long-term remission
Fighting for his life and the lives of other stroke survivors
Sean Entin, stroke survivor and founder of Stroke Hacker The word "miraculous" gets tossed around a lot in the world of medicine, mostly by people who have made an unexpected recovery from a deadly or life-threatening condition. In Sean Entin's case calling his recovery from an almost-fatal stroke could be called miraculous, but I think … Continue reading Fighting for his life and the lives of other stroke survivors
The present and future of regenerative medicine
One of the great pleasures of my job is getting to meet the high school students who take part in our SPARK or Summer Internship to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge program. It's a summer internship for high school students where they get to spend a couple of months working in a world class stem cell … Continue reading The present and future of regenerative medicine
Study reveals new evidence of key mechanism in Alzheimer’s
In California, 690,000 people aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia. In the United States, 5.8 million people aged 65 and older live with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's affects memory, thinking and behavior and symptoms eventually grow in severity to interfere with daily tasks. … Continue reading Study reveals new evidence of key mechanism in Alzheimer’s
Why people seek out unproven and potentially unsafe stem cell treatments
Every day I field phone calls and emails from people looking for a stem cell therapy to help them cope with everything from arthritis to cancer. Often, they will mention that they saw an ad for a clinic online or in a local newspaper claiming they had stem cell therapies that could help fix anything … Continue reading Why people seek out unproven and potentially unsafe stem cell treatments
Using stem cells and smart machines to warn of heart problems
Despite advances in treatments in recent years heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US. It accounts for one in three deaths in this country, and many people are not even aware they have a problem until they have a heart attack. One of the early warning signs of danger is a … Continue reading Using stem cells and smart machines to warn of heart problems
A big deal for type 1 diabetes
It’s not often you get excited talking about company mergers, but a deal announced today is something worth getting excited about, particularly if you have type 1 diabetes (T1D). Today Vertex announced it was buying ViaCyte for $320 million in cash. Why is that important? Because both companies are working on developing stem cell therapies … Continue reading A big deal for type 1 diabetes
The Stem Cellar 