Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I) is a rare pediatric disease that prevents patients from combating infections. This leads to recurring bacterial and fungal infections that respond poorly to antibiotics, require frequent hospitalizations, and can be fatal. It is caused by a mutation in a specific gene that causes low levels of a protein called CD18. The … Continue reading Positive results for patients enrolled in CIRM-funded trial of a rare pediatric disease
Stem cell research
Saying thanks and farewell to a friend
Tom Howing In this job you get to meet a lot of remarkable people, none more so than the patients who volunteer to take part in what are giant experiments. They are courageous pioneers, willing to be among the first people to ever try a new therapy, knowing that it may not help them and, … Continue reading Saying thanks and farewell to a friend
Hitting our Goals: Playing Matchmaker
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: Playing Matchmaker
Stem cell therapy for diabetic foot ulcers shows promise in new study
For individuals with diabetes, the body's inability to properly control blood sugar levels can lead to a wide range of other problems as time passes. One major issue is a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), an open sore or wound that is commonly located on the bottom of the foot and caused by poor blood circulation … Continue reading Stem cell therapy for diabetic foot ulcers shows promise in new study
CIRM funding helps improve immune cell therapy to combat HIV
Image description: T cell infected with HIV. Image Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) In June of last year we wrote about how Dr. Scott Kitchen and his team at UCLA are engineering blood forming stem cells in order to fight HIV, a potentially deadly virus that attacks the immune system and … Continue reading CIRM funding helps improve immune cell therapy to combat HIV
Hitting our Goals: Let’s start at the beginning shall we
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: Let’s start at the beginning shall we
Meet xenobots 2.0 – the next generation of living robots
Xenobots scurry about and can work together in swarms. Source: Doug Blackiston Last year we wrote about how researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University were able to create what they call xenobots – the world’s first living, self healing robots created from frog stem cells. Now, the same team has created an … Continue reading Meet xenobots 2.0 – the next generation of living robots
Three UC’s Join Forces to Launch CRISPR Clinical Trial Targeting Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle shaped red blood cells The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in collaboration with UC Berkeley (UCB) and UC Los Angeles (UCLA), have been given permission by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch a first-in-human clinical trial using CRISPR technology as a gene-editing technique to cure Sickle Cell Disease. This research … Continue reading Three UC’s Join Forces to Launch CRISPR Clinical Trial Targeting Sickle Cell Disease
Prime Time for Rocket
Rocket Pharmaceuticals, a company that specializes in developing genetic therapies for rare childhood disorders, just got a big boost from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). They were given a Priority Medicines (PRIME) designation for their therapy for Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-1 (LAD-1). CIRM is funding ($6.56 million) Rocket’s clinical trial for LAD-I, an immune disorder that … Continue reading Prime Time for Rocket
CIRM funding helps identify potential COVID-19 treatment
The steps of the virus growth cycle that can be targeted with therapies: The virus enters a host cell (1), the virus's genetic instructions are released, taking over cellular machinery (2), the virus is replicated within the cell (3) and copies of the virus exit the cell in search of new host cells to infect … Continue reading CIRM funding helps identify potential COVID-19 treatment
The Stem Cellar 