By the time someone begins to experience the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the damage has already been done. An accumulation of toxic proteins is causing brain cells to whither and die, taking with them a lifetime of precious memories. But what if we had a definitive test that could predict one’s risk of developing … Continue reading Blood Test Reveals Alzheimer’s Disease Risk, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
Disease Areas
Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Reducing the Risk of Causing Tumors
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. Cell therapy for Parkinson’s advancing to the clinic. A decade-long moratorium on the transplant of fetal nerve tissue into Parkinson’s patient will end in two … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Reducing the Risk of Causing Tumors
The Fatal Flip: How Nerve Cells go from Healthy to Cancerous
Every gene in the human genome has a job to do. One such gene, called Merlin, prevents cells from dividing out of control and forming into tumors. A so-called ‘tumor suppressor,’ Merlin has proven to be essential to maintaining healthy cell division. Scientists knew that without Merlin, nerve cells grew uncontrollably, often leading to tumors … Continue reading The Fatal Flip: How Nerve Cells go from Healthy to Cancerous
What was Old is New Again: Scientists Transplant Brain Cells into Aged Mice and Reverse Memory Loss
Alzheimer’s disease starts with small, almost imperceptible steps. And then it builds. Sometimes slowly over a period of decades, other times more quickly—in just a matter of years. But no matter the speed of progression, the end outcome is always the same. The sixth leading cause of death in the United State, Alzheimer’s develops as … Continue reading What was Old is New Again: Scientists Transplant Brain Cells into Aged Mice and Reverse Memory Loss
Stem Cells become Tool to Screen for Drugs; Fight Dangerous Heart Infections.
A Stanford study adds a powerful example to our growing list of diseases that have yielded their secrets to iPS-type stem cells grown in a dish. These “disease-in-a-dish” models have become one of the most rapidly growing areas of stem cell science. But this time they did not start with skin from a patient with … Continue reading Stem Cells become Tool to Screen for Drugs; Fight Dangerous Heart Infections.
Stem Cell Agency Funded Treatment for Type 1 Diabetes Takes a Big Step towards Clinical Trials
Even the best ideas can fail without a lot of support. One of the things we pride ourselves on at the Stem Cell Agency is nurturing really promising ideas for new therapies through sustained funding, giving them the support they need to turn that promise into reality. So it’s very gratifying today to hear that … Continue reading Stem Cell Agency Funded Treatment for Type 1 Diabetes Takes a Big Step towards Clinical Trials
Finding your Inner Rhythm: Cedars-Sinai Cardiologists Create Biological “Pacemakers” in the Heart
If your heart has trouble keeping a steady rhythm, you normally get a pacemaker: a small device that is inserted into your body and attached to your heart. About 300,000 people receive a pacemaker each year. But what if we could harness the body’s own cells to do what an external device does today? In … Continue reading Finding your Inner Rhythm: Cedars-Sinai Cardiologists Create Biological “Pacemakers” in the Heart
Unique Cellular Signal Directs Cells to Gobble Up Toxic Waste; Could Serve as New Weapon to Fight Disease
White blood cells have a lot of work to do. They are our body’s main defense against foreign invaders—and are quite adept at it. Tasked with cleanup duty, they target and destroy cells that have been infected with bacteria, viruses or other harmful, disease-causing pathogens. But as good as they are at their job—they aren’t … Continue reading Unique Cellular Signal Directs Cells to Gobble Up Toxic Waste; Could Serve as New Weapon to Fight Disease
Clever Stem Cells Withstand Chemo Drug’s Harmful Side Effects
For some conditions, it seem that the treatment can cause almost as many problems as than the disease itself. That’s often the case with some forms of cancer, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The most common type of cancer to affect children, treatment usually involves chemotherapy with the drug methotrexate (MTX). And, while effective at … Continue reading Clever Stem Cells Withstand Chemo Drug’s Harmful Side Effects
The Man Behind the Curtain: Protein Helps Keep Cancer Cells Alive and Kicking
Being diagnosed with brain cancer comes with a sobering sentence: even with the most aggressive treatments, life expectancy for the most common form of brain cancer—called glioblastoma—is less than two years. One of the key culprits, many scientists now believe, are cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are a subset of cancer cells that have … Continue reading The Man Behind the Curtain: Protein Helps Keep Cancer Cells Alive and Kicking
The Stem Cellar 