When you suffer a heart attack, beating heart muscle cells become deprived of oxygen and die—and become encased in scar tissue. Once these cells die, they can’t be brought back to life. But new research presented this week has found that injecting a protein into the heart immediately following an attack can spur stem cells … Continue reading Protein Drip Spurs Stem Cells to Save Heart Tissue
Disease Areas
Out with the Old and in with the New: Starvation Sparks Stem Cells to Replenish Immune System
New research from California scientists has revealed a startling side effect to prolonged starvation, or fasting. In the latest issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, scientists from the University of Southern California describe how fasting triggers the human immune system to flush out old, damaged cells and replace them with new ones. This marks … Continue reading Out with the Old and in with the New: Starvation Sparks Stem Cells to Replenish Immune System
CIRM-Funded Scientists Identify Cause; Potential Therapy for Deadly Form of Eye Cancer
If the cancer is caught early, you may just lose your eye. If it is caught too late, however, you may lose your life. uch is the fate of those diagnosed with uveal melanoma, a rare but deadly form of eye cancer that attacks the eye’s pigment cells in the iris. Each year about 2,000 … Continue reading CIRM-Funded Scientists Identify Cause; Potential Therapy for Deadly Form of Eye Cancer
A Second Chance for a Spinal Cord Injury Trial, and a Powerful Reminder from Patient Advocates
Yesterday’s meeting of our governing Board was important for a number of reasons. First, the Board voted to invest some $32 million to try and get two promising projects into clinical trials – more on that in a minute – and also to try and attract some world-class researchers to California through our Research Leadership … Continue reading A Second Chance for a Spinal Cord Injury Trial, and a Powerful Reminder from Patient Advocates
Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: Safety of First Embryonic Cell Trial, Engineered Organs, New Hips
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. Update on status of bioengineered organs. Kevin Mayer, writing for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, this week produced the best lay overview I have read … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: Safety of First Embryonic Cell Trial, Engineered Organs, New Hips
Slowing Down the Clock on Aging Hearts
It’s like something from a nightmare: a disease that ages you at a breakneck pace, so that by age 12, your body more closely resembles someone in their 80’s—inside and out. Instead of enjoying your childhood and adolescence, you suffer from diseases usually reserved for octogenarians: including heart disease, kidney failure and stroke. Chances are, … Continue reading Slowing Down the Clock on Aging Hearts
Getting at the Root of Cancer: Cancer Stem Cells Tracked down in Human Patients
The backers of the cancer stem cell hypothesis just got a boost from scientists at the University of Oxford, UK, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who last week used an advanced genetic tracking technique that identified, in patients, the presence of cancer stem cells—a small subset of cancer cells that many experts view as … Continue reading Getting at the Root of Cancer: Cancer Stem Cells Tracked down in Human Patients
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: stroke, growing bladder tissue and a clinical trial roundup
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. Early data on stem cells for stroke promising. The British company ReNeuron reported preliminary data on its clinical trial in stroke patients at the European … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: stroke, growing bladder tissue and a clinical trial roundup
Perfecting the use of stem cells as drug delivery mules shows promise in brain tumors
Stem cells loaded with cancer-killing herpes virus (red) attacking a brain tumor cell (green). Courtesy HSCIThe innate tendency of stem cells to seek out inflammation—combined with the fact that our bodies see tumors as inflammation—has led many teams to try to harness stem cells as delivery vehicles for cancer therapies. CIRM funds a team at … Continue reading Perfecting the use of stem cells as drug delivery mules shows promise in brain tumors
Scientists Successfully Test Stem Cell Therapy in Monkeys; Generate New Bone
Last week, researchers came that much closer to one day regrowing human bone lost to disease or injury. In the latest issue of the journal Cell Reports, scientists from the National Institutes of Health announced that they have transformed skin cells from rhesus macaque monkeys into new bone—marking the first time such a procedure has … Continue reading Scientists Successfully Test Stem Cell Therapy in Monkeys; Generate New Bone
The Stem Cellar 