Pain hurts but it also protects. Thanks to nerve cells called sensory neurons, which weave their nerve fibers throughout our skin and other tissues, we are alerted to dangerous events like touching a hot plate or even to the sense of having a full bladder. However, trauma such as a spinal cord injury or diseases … Continue reading CIRM-Funded Scripps Team Replicates Pain in a Lab Dish; Seeks New Treatments for Chronic Sufferers
News
Searching for a Cure for HIV/AIDS: Stem Cells and World AIDS Day
It's been 26 years since the first World AIDS Day was held in 1988—and the progress that the international scientific community has made towards eradicating the disease has been unparalleled. But there is much more work to be done. One of the most promising areas of HIV/AIDS research has been in the field of regenerative … Continue reading Searching for a Cure for HIV/AIDS: Stem Cells and World AIDS Day
Using stem cells paves new approach to treating a blistering skin disease
Imagine a child not being able to run or jump or just roll around, for fear that any movement could strip away their skin and leave them with open, painful wounds. That’s what life is like for children with a nasty genetic disease called epidermolysis bullosa or EB. The slightest touch can cause their skin … Continue reading Using stem cells paves new approach to treating a blistering skin disease
Speak Friend and Enter: How Cells Let the Right Travelers through their Doors
For decades, it’s been a molecular mystery that scientists were seemingly unable to solve: how do large molecules pass through the cell and into the nucleus, while others half their size remain stranded outside? But as reported in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology, researchers now believe they may have cracked the case. By shedding … Continue reading Speak Friend and Enter: How Cells Let the Right Travelers through their Doors
Shape-Shifting Cells Drive Bone Healing; Point to New Method of Correcting Bone Deformities
There’s a time to grow and a time to heal—and the cells that make up our bone and cartilage have impeccable timing. During childhood and adolescence, these cells work to grow the bones longer and stronger. Once we’ve reached adulthood, they shift focus to repair and healing. This is part of why children with bone … Continue reading Shape-Shifting Cells Drive Bone Healing; Point to New Method of Correcting Bone Deformities
Taking stock: ten years of the stem cell agency, progress and promise for the future
Under some circumstances ten years can seem like a lifetime. But when lives are at stake, ten years can fly by in a flash. Ten years ago the people of California created the stem cell agency when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 71, giving us $3 billion to fund and support stem cell research in the … Continue reading Taking stock: ten years of the stem cell agency, progress and promise for the future
10 Years/10 Therapies: 10 Years after its Founding CIRM will have 10 Therapies Approved for Clinical Trials
In 2004, when 59 percent of California voters approved the creation of CIRM, our state embarked on an unprecedented experiment: providing concentrated funding to a new, promising area of research. The goal: accelerate the process of getting therapies to patients, especially those with unmet medical needs. Having 10 potential treatments expected to be approved for … Continue reading 10 Years/10 Therapies: 10 Years after its Founding CIRM will have 10 Therapies Approved for Clinical Trials
UCLA team cures infants of often-fatal “bubble baby” disease by inserting gene in their stem cells; sickle cell disease is next target
Poopy diapers, ear-splitting cries, and sleepless nights: sure, the first few weeks of parenthood are grueling but those other moments of cuddling and kissing your little baby are pure bliss. That wasn’t the case for Alysia and Christian Padilla-Vacarro of Corona, California. Close contact with their infant daughter Evangelina, born in 2012, was off limits. … Continue reading UCLA team cures infants of often-fatal “bubble baby” disease by inserting gene in their stem cells; sickle cell disease is next target
Entrepreneurship and Education
Guest author Neil Littman is CIRM's Business Development Officer. CIRM works closely with UCSF on a number of initiatives, from providing funding to academic investigators to jointly hosting events such as the recent CIRM Showcase with J-Labs held at the Mission Bay campus. Beyond our joint initiatives, UCSF also provides many other valuable resources and … Continue reading Entrepreneurship and Education
More Than Meets the Eye: Protein that Keeps Cancer in Check also Plays Direct Role in Stem Cell Biology, a Stanford Study Finds.
Here’s a startling fact: the retinoblastoma protein —Rb, for short — is defective or missing in nearly all cancers. Rb is called a tumor suppressor because it prevents excessive cell growth by acting as a crucial traffic stop for the cell cycle, a process that controls the timing for a cell to divide and multiply. … Continue reading More Than Meets the Eye: Protein that Keeps Cancer in Check also Plays Direct Role in Stem Cell Biology, a Stanford Study Finds.
The Stem Cellar 