Today, the Menlo Park-based biotech company Asterias Biotherapeutics reported positive results from the first three patients treated in its Phase 1/2a clinical study using stem cell therapy to treat patients with spinal cord injury. This trial is funded by a CIRM Strategic Partnerships Award grant of $14.3 million. Asterias has developed a stem cell therapy … Continue reading CIRM-funded clinical trial for spinal cord injury reports promising results
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Cell mate: the man who makes stem cells for clinical trials
When we announced that one of the researchers we fund - Dr. Henry Klassen at the University of California, Irvine - has begun his clinical trial to treat the vision-destroying disease retinitis pigmentosa, we celebrated the excitement felt by the researchers and the hope from people with the disease. But we missed out one group. … Continue reading Cell mate: the man who makes stem cells for clinical trials
Da Mayor and the clinical trial that could help save his vision
Former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown is many things, but shy is not one of them. A profile of him in the San Francisco Chronicle once described him as “Brash, smart, confident”. But for years Da Mayor – as he is fondly known in The City – said very little … Continue reading Da Mayor and the clinical trial that could help save his vision
Going back to figure out how the embryo makes muscles led team to way to mass produce muscle fibers
Sometimes in science what seems like the simpler task turns out to be the hardest. We have written extensively about research teams building mini-organs in lab dishes turning stem cells into multiple layers of tissues organized and functioning, at least in part, like the kidney, liver or stomach they mimic. Given these successes and the … Continue reading Going back to figure out how the embryo makes muscles led team to way to mass produce muscle fibers
Bridging the gap: training scientists to speak everyday English
Getting a start in your chosen career is never easy. Without experience it’s hard to get a job. And without a job you can’t get experience. That’s why the CIRM Bridges program was created, to help give undergraduate and Master’s level students a chance to get the experience they need to start a career in … Continue reading Bridging the gap: training scientists to speak everyday English
Global stem cell market predicted to reach $40 billion in five years, even bigger when mixed with new technologies
The global consulting firm Frost and Sullivan held a webinar yesterday in which they noted health care systems everywhere are facing an increasing challenge of costly chronic care. They suggested health care providers have started to embrace regenerative medicine as a viable alternative. Because of its power to change the course of disease, the consultants … Continue reading Global stem cell market predicted to reach $40 billion in five years, even bigger when mixed with new technologies
Improving process drives progress in stem cell research
Process is not a sexy word. No one gets excited thinking about improving a process. Yet behind every great idea, behind every truly effective program is someone who figured out a way to improve the process, to make that idea not just work, but work better. It’s not glamorous. Sometimes it’s not even pretty. But … Continue reading Improving process drives progress in stem cell research
Pushing, pulling and dragging stem cell research forward
Government agencies are known for many things, but generally speaking a willingness to do some voluntary, deep self-examination is not one of them. However, for the last few weeks CIRM has been doing a lot of introspection as we develop a new Strategic Plan, a kind of road map for where we are heading. But … Continue reading Pushing, pulling and dragging stem cell research forward
Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
Two California teams discovered genetic machinery that cancer stem cells in high-grade brain cancers use to evade therapy. One CIRM-funded team at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles pinpointed a family of genes that turn off other genes that chemotherapy targets —effectively hiding them from the chemo. The other team at the University of California, San Diego … Continue reading Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
New Video: Paving a path to cures with the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network
In The Stem Cellar, you often read phrases like, “as their research progresses toward the clinic.” That’s because it’s a very noteworthy milestone to advance an initial idea in the laboratory to an actual experimental therapy that has approval to be tested in people. It’s a process that can be years in making. Through our … Continue reading New Video: Paving a path to cures with the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network
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