A study by Stanford Medicine researchers in older mice may lead to treatments that help seniors regain muscle strength lost to aging. Muscle stem cells—which are activated in response to muscle injury to regenerate damaged muscle tissue—lose their potency with age. A study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that five percent … Continue reading Study could pave the way in reducing decline in muscle strength as people age
Muscles
The power of the patient advocate: how a quick visit led to an $11M grant to fund a clinical trial
THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO CAST Members of NFOSD visiting UC Davis in 2013 At the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) we are fortunate in having enough money to fund the most promising research to be tested in a clinical trial. Those are expensive projects, often costing tens of millions of … Continue reading The power of the patient advocate: how a quick visit led to an $11M grant to fund a clinical trial
Recovery from muscle loss injuries hindered by immune cell conflicts
During a game in 2018, Alex Smith suffered a compound fracture that broke both the tibia and fibula in his right leg. The gruesome injury aside, the former 49ers quarterback soon developed life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis — a rare bacterial infection — that resulted in sepsis and required him to undergo 17 surgeries. In a battle to save his … Continue reading Recovery from muscle loss injuries hindered by immune cell conflicts
How mRNA and CRISPR-Cas9 could treat muscle atrophy
THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO CAST Researchers use mRNA to introduce the gene editor CRISPR-Cas9 into human muscle stem cells. These cells fused into multinucleated myotubes following mRNA-mediated CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. A myosin heavy chain is seen in green and the nuclei in blue. Photo: Spuler Lab A team of researchers from … Continue reading How mRNA and CRISPR-Cas9 could treat muscle atrophy
A personal reason to develop a better gene therapy
THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOCAST ON SPOTIFY Credit : Allison Dougherty, Broad Communications For Sharif Tabebordbar, finding a gene therapy for genetic muscle wasting diseases was personal. When he was a teenager, his father was diagnosed with a rare genetic muscle disease that eventually left him unable to walk. In an interview … Continue reading A personal reason to develop a better gene therapy
A new way to evade immune rejection in transplanting cells
Immune fluorescence of HIP cardiomyocytes in a dish; Photo courtesy of UCSF Transplanting cells or an entire organ from one person to another can be lifesaving but it comes with a cost. To avoid the recipient’s body rejecting the cells or organ the patient has to be given powerful immunosuppressive medications. Those medications weaken the … Continue reading A new way to evade immune rejection in transplanting cells
Inspiring new documentary about stem cell research
Poster for the documentary "Ending Disease" 2020 has been, to say the very least, a difficult and challenging year for all of us. But while the focus of the world has, understandably, been on the coronavirus there was also some really promising advances in stem cell research. Those advances are captured in a great new … Continue reading Inspiring new documentary about stem cell research
Repairing damaged muscles
Close-up of the arm of a 70-year-old male patient with a torn biceps muscle as a result of a bowling injury; Photo courtesy Science Photo Library In the time of coronavirus an awful lot of people are not just working from home they’re also working out at home. That’s a good thing; exercise is a … Continue reading Repairing damaged muscles
Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half
Some of the stars of our Annual Report It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into … Continue reading Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half
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
The Stem Cellar 