By Lisa Kadyk, PhD. CIRM Senior Science Officer Illustration of a man's heart - Courtesy Science Photo I love maps; I still have auto club maps of various parts of the country in my car. But, to tell the truth, those maps just don’t have as much information as I can get by typing in … Continue reading An Atlas of the Human Heart that May Guide Development of New Therapies
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CIRM-funded kidney transplant procedure eyeing faster approval
Kidney transplant surgery. Medeor Therapeutics, which is running a CIRM-funded clinical trial to help people getting kidney transplants, just got some really good news. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just granted their product Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation. That’s a big deal because it means they may be able to apply … Continue reading CIRM-funded kidney transplant procedure eyeing faster approval
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
Researchers 3D print a heart pump using stem cells
This image used on the cover of the American Heart Association’s Circulation Research journal is a 3D rendering of the printed heart pump developed at the University of Minnesota. The discovery could have major implications for studying heart disease. Credit: Kupfer, Lin, et al., University of Minnesota According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart … Continue reading Researchers 3D print a heart pump using stem cells
Stem cells used to look at how COVID-19 attacks heart muscle
Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (heart cells) shown in green and blue, are infected by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (red). Image provided by Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. There is still a lot that we don't understand about SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the new coronavirus that has caused a worldwide pandemic. Some patients that … Continue reading Stem cells used to look at how COVID-19 attacks heart muscle
Two rare diseases, two pieces of good news
Dr. Stephanie Cherqui Last week saw a flurry of really encouraging reports from projects that CIRM has supported. We blogged about two of them last Wednesday, but here’s another two programs showing promising results. UC San Diego researcher Dr. Stephanie Cherqui is running a CIRM-funded clinical trial for cystinosis. This is a condition where patients … Continue reading Two rare diseases, two pieces of good news
You can bank on CIRM
Way back in 2013, the CIRM Board invested $32 million in a project to create an iPSC Bank. The goal was simple; to collect tissue samples from people who have different diseases, turn those samples into high quality stem cell lines - the kind known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) - and create a … Continue reading You can bank on CIRM
Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team
On December 12th we hosted our latest 'Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team' event. This time around we really did mean team. We had a host of our Science Officers answering questions from friends and supporters of CIRM. We got a lot of questions and didn't have enough time to address them all. So … Continue reading Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team
How stem cells know the right way to make a heart . And what goes wrong when they don’t
Gladstone scientists Deepak Srivastava (left), Yvanka De Soysa (center), and Casey Gifford (right) publish a complete catalog of the cells involved in heart development. The invention of GPS navigation systems has made finding your way around so much easier, providing simple instructions on how to get from point A to point B. Now, a new … Continue reading How stem cells know the right way to make a heart . And what goes wrong when they don’t
CIRM funded study identifies potential drug target for deadly heart condition
Joseph Wu is co-senior author of a study that demonstrates how patient-derived heart cells can help scientists better study the heart and screen potential therapies. Photo courtesy of Steve Fisch Heart disease continues to be the number one cause of death in the United States. An estimated 375,000 people have a genetic form of heart … Continue reading CIRM funded study identifies potential drug target for deadly heart condition