The bootcamp helping in the fight against rare diseases

THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO CAST Dr. Emil Kakkis at the Rare Entrepreneur Bootcamp Imagine you or someone you love is diagnosed with a rare disease and then told, “There is no cure, there are no treatments and because it’s so rare no one is even doing any research into developing a … Continue reading The bootcamp helping in the fight against rare diseases

Sharing ideas and data to advance regenerative medicine

THIS BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO CAST If Kindergarten kids can learn to share why can't scientists? When I was a kid, we were always told to share our toys. It was a good way of teaching children the importance of playing nice with the other kids and avoiding conflicts. Those same virtues … Continue reading Sharing ideas and data to advance regenerative medicine

A model for success

Dr. Maria Millan, CIRM's President & CEO Funding models are rarely talked about in excited tones.  It’s normally relegated to the dry tomes of academia. But in CIRM’s case, the funding model we have created is not just fundamental to our success in advancing regenerative medicine in California, it’s also proving to be a model … Continue reading A model for success

Getting the inside scoop on the stem cell agency

There’s a wonderful moment at the end of the movie The Candidate (starring Robert Redford, 87% approval on Rotten Tomatoes!) about a modern political campaign for a US Senate seat. Redford (spoiler alert) plays a come-from-behind candidate and at the end when he wins he turns to his campaign manager and says “Now what?”. I … Continue reading Getting the inside scoop on the stem cell agency

If you’re into stem cell manufacturing, this is the conference for you!

Fulfilling CIRM’s mission doesn’t just mean accelerating promising stem cell treatments to patients. It also involves accelerating the whole field of regenerative medicine, which involves not just research, but developing candidate treatments, manufacturing cell therapies, and testing these therapies in clinical trials. Manufacturing and the pre-clinical safety evaluation of cell therapies are topics that don’t … Continue reading If you’re into stem cell manufacturing, this is the conference for you!

How CIRM funding creates additional financial support for stem cell research in California

CIRM’s 2017 Annual Report will be going live online very soon. In anticipation of that we are highlighting some of the key elements from the report here on the Stem Cellar. CIRM funds stem cell research.  We all know that.  What you may not know is that CIRM funds also help bring in additional funding … Continue reading How CIRM funding creates additional financial support for stem cell research in California

Why Goldilocks could provide the answer to changing the way FDA regulates stem cells

One of the hottest topics of the past year in regenerative medicine has been the discussion about the need for regulatory reform at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) so it’s no surprise that topic was the subject of the first main panel discussion at the 2016 World Stem Cell Summit in West Palm Beach, … Continue reading Why Goldilocks could provide the answer to changing the way FDA regulates stem cells

BIO 2016: IMAGINE Curing Disease and Saving Lives Part 2

As promised, here is Part 2 of our blog coverage on the BIO International Convention currently ongoing in San Francisco. Here are a few more insights on the talks we attended and highlights of other coverage from top biotech journalists and media outlets. Keynote with Dr. Bennet Omalu and Will Smith on “Concussion” If you … Continue reading BIO 2016: IMAGINE Curing Disease and Saving Lives Part 2

Get your BIO on: Sneak Peak of the June 2016 BIO Convention in SF

Summer is almost here and for scientists around the world, that means it’s time to flock to one of the world’s biggest biotech meetings, the BIO International Convention. This year, BIO is hosted in the lovely city of San Francisco. From June 6-9th, over 15,000 biotechnology and pharma leaders, as well as other professionals, academics, … Continue reading Get your BIO on: Sneak Peak of the June 2016 BIO Convention in SF

How do you know what patients want if you never even ask them?

Our mission at CIRM is to accelerate stem treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. But what if those needs are not just unmet, they’re also unknown? What happens when those developing treatments never even bother to ask those they are trying to help if this is what they really need, or want? The question … Continue reading How do you know what patients want if you never even ask them?