Way, way back in 2015 – seems like a lifetime ago doesn’t it – the team at CIRM sat down and planned out our Big 6 goals for the next five years. The end result was a Strategic Plan that was bold, ambitious and set us on course to do great things or kill ourselves … Continue reading Hitting our goals: regulatory reform
News
A Match Made in Heaven, if heaven were in Oakland!
The Matchmaker - by Gerrit van Honthorst Throughout history, matchmakers have played an important role in bringing together couples for arranged marriages. Fast forward to today and CIRM is now playing a similar role. We’re not looking to get anyone hitched, what we are trying to do is create partnerships between people we are funding … Continue reading A Match Made in Heaven, if heaven were in Oakland!
A little history in the making by helping the tiniest patients
Dr. Diana Farmer stands with Dr. Aijun Wang and their UC Davis research team. It’s appropriate that at the start of Women’s History Month, UC Davis’ Dr. Diana Farmer is making a little history of her own. She launched the world’s first clinical trial using stem cells to treat spina bifida before the child is … Continue reading A little history in the making by helping the tiniest patients
A word from our Chair, several in fact
In 2005, the New Oxford American Dictionary named “podcast" its word of the year. At the time a podcast was something many had heard of but not that many actually tuned in to. My how times have changed. Now there are some two million podcasts to chose from, at least according to the New York … Continue reading A word from our Chair, several in fact
Charting a course for the future
A new home for stem cell research? Have you ever been at a party where someone says “hey, I’ve got a good idea” and then before you know it everyone in the room is adding to it with ideas and suggestions of their own and suddenly you find yourself with 27 pages of notes, all … Continue reading Charting a course for the future
Unlocking a key behind why our bones get weaker as we age
Magnified image of a bone with osteoporosis. Photo Courtesy Sciencephoto.com Getting older brings with it a mixed bag of items. If you are lucky you can get wiser. If you are not so lucky you can get osteoporosis. But while scientists don’t know how to make you wiser, they have gained some new insights into … Continue reading Unlocking a key behind why our bones get weaker as we age
Tipping our hat to the good guys (& gals)
A search on Google using the term “stem cell blogs” quickly produces a host of sites offering treatments for everything from ankle, hip and knee problems, to Parkinson’s disease and asthma. Amazingly the therapies for those very different conditions all use the same kind of cells produced in the same way. It’s like magic. Sadly, … Continue reading Tipping our hat to the good guys (& gals)
U.C. San Diego Scientist Larry Goldstein Joins Stem Cell Agency’s Board
Larry Goldstein, PhD. Larry Goldstein PhD, has many titles, one of which sums up his career perfectly, “Distinguished Professor”. Dr. Goldstein has distinguished himself on many fronts, making him an ideal addition to the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Dr. Goldstein – everyone calls him Larry - is a Cell … Continue reading U.C. San Diego Scientist Larry Goldstein Joins Stem Cell Agency’s Board
De-stressing stem cells and the Bonnie & Clyde of stem cells
Dr. John Cashman The cells in our body are constantly signalling with each other, it's a critical process by which cells communicate not just with other cells but also with elements within themselves. One of the most important signalling pathways is called Wnt. This plays a key role in early embryonic and later development. But … Continue reading De-stressing stem cells and the Bonnie & Clyde of stem cells
Surviving with Joy
Dr. Tippi MacKenzie (left) of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, visits with newborn Elianna and parents Nichelle Obar and Chris Constantino. Photo by Noah Berger Alpha thalassemia major is, by any stretch of the imagination, a dreadful, heart breaker of a disease. It's caused by four missing or mutated genes and it almost always … Continue reading Surviving with Joy
The Stem Cellar 