Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half

Some of the stars of our Annual Report It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into … Continue reading Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half

CIRM Board Approves Two New Discovery Research Projects for COVID-19

Dr. Karen Christman (left) and Dr. Lili Yang (right) This past Friday the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved two new discovery research project as part of the $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 related projects.  This brings the number of COVID-19 projects CIRM is supporting to 17, including three clinical trials. … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Two New Discovery Research Projects for COVID-19

Lab-grown human sperm cells could unlock treatments for infertility

Dr. Miles Wilkinson: Photo courtesy UCSD Out of 100 couples in the US, around 12 or 13 will have trouble starting a family. In one third of those cases the problem is male infertility (one third is female infertility and the other third is a combination of factors). In the past treatment options for men … Continue reading Lab-grown human sperm cells could unlock treatments for infertility

CIRM Board Approves Two Discovery Research Projects for COVID-19

Dr. Steven Dowdy (left), Dr. Evan Snyder (center), and Dr. John Zaia (right) This past Friday the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved two additional discovery research projects as part of the $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 related projects.  This brings the number of COVID-19 projects CIRM is supporting to … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Two Discovery Research Projects for COVID-19

Super charging killer cells to fight leukemia

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a natural killer cell.Photo credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Racing car drivers are forever tinkering with their cars, trying to streamline them and soup up their engines because while fast is good, faster is better. Researchers do the same things with potential anti-cancer therapies, tinkering with them … Continue reading Super charging killer cells to fight leukemia

Parkinson’s Disease and Stem Cells

Lila Collins, PhD A few weeks ago we held a Facebook Live "Ask the Stem Cell Team About Parkinson's Disease" event. As you can imagine we got lots of questions but, because of time constraints, only had time to answer a few. Thanks to my fabulous CIRM colleagues, Dr. Lila Collins and Dr. Kent Fitzgerald, … Continue reading Parkinson’s Disease and Stem Cells

Two rare diseases, two pieces of good news

Dr. Stephanie Cherqui Last week saw a flurry of really encouraging reports from projects that CIRM has supported. We blogged about two of them last Wednesday, but here’s another two programs showing promising results. UC San Diego researcher Dr. Stephanie Cherqui is running a CIRM-funded clinical trial for cystinosis. This is a condition where patients … Continue reading Two rare diseases, two pieces of good news

A true Hall of Fame winner

Dr. Larry Goldstein: Photo courtesy UCSD You know you are working with some of the finest scientific minds in the world when they get elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS). It’s the science equivalent of the baseball, football or even Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. People only get in if their … Continue reading A true Hall of Fame winner

Ask the Stem Cell Team About Autism

On March 19th we held a special Facebook Live "Ask the Stem Cell Team About Autism" event. We were fortunate enough to have two great experts - Dr. Alysson Muotri from UC San Diego, and CIRM's own Dr. Kelly Shepard. As always there is a lot of ground to cover in under one hour and … Continue reading Ask the Stem Cell Team About Autism

Why “Ask the Stem Cell Team” Remains Important

These are definitely strange, unusual and challenging times. Every day seems to bring new restrictions on what we can and should do. All, of course, in the name of protecting us and helping us avoid a potentially deadly virus. We all hope this will soon pass but we also know the bigger impact of the … Continue reading Why “Ask the Stem Cell Team” Remains Important