The parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) rank high in number among the desperate calls that come to CIRM wanting to know about stem cell therapies offered on the internet. They don’t like to hear that we have very little information suggesting benefit from stem cells in these kids and that there is little … Continue reading A placebo-controlled trial in cerebral palsy might unlock some answers for parents

Entrepreneurs and researchers are finding new sources to cross the "valley of death" funding gap. Neil Littman is the Business Development Officer at CIRMIn February I gave a talk at the Phaciliate Conference in Washington D.C. entitled Bridging the Funding Gap: Non-Profit and Industry Collaborations, CIRM’s Perspective. Phacilitate is an annual conference focused on the … Continue reading Changing landscape of funding stem cell therapies: not just a venture capitalist’s game

Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. Attack on cancer stem cell advancing with a broad aim. Most of the advances in cancer in recent years require matching very specific therapies to … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: cancer therapy with broad aim, lupus and politics again

Get in that wheel and exercise little guy; it's good for your brain.We have long known the brain is not static. Parts of it change and become stronger in response to being stimulated. This “plasticity” as it is called, is generally attributed to changes in the nerves themselves. But a CIRM-funded Stanford team now has … Continue reading Living proof exercising the brain helps it function, provides clues to improving stem cell therapy

We never would have expected two years or more out that patients could recover from a stroke. We thought the circuits were dead. Now we know they're still viable. That encouraging soundbite by Stanford’s Dr. Gary Steinberg in Monday’s Health Day News is based on his team’s preliminary, unpublished results of a stem cell-based clinical … Continue reading Early results from stem cell-based trial for stroke give tangible hope to millions

New brochure that describes our stem cell bank initiative [download pdf]Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer for Medical & Ethical Standards One thing patients and their families can do to advance the role of stem cells in curing disease is to donate a small skin or blood sample if asked. How can this help? Here … Continue reading Stem cell agency educating patients on how they can make a difference

Cynthia Schaffer supports CIRM’s Business Development and Industry Engagement and Commercialization activities. We always consider ourselves on the front wave of technology here in California. We have Silicon Valley and a huge biotechnology sector. We are also the state that voted to create CIRM, the largest funder of stem cell research outside of the National … Continue reading Start the conversation, ask your relatives about stem cell value

Each month CIRM President Alan Trounson gives his perspective on recently published papers he thinks will be valuable in moving the field of stem cell research forward. This month’s report, along with an archive of past reports, is available on the CIRM website. This month’s report discusses a couple very pragmatic but elegant riffs on … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — March’s stem cell research highlights

Using stem cells as a repair kit often requires two steps, maturing the stem cells into the right tissue, and then getting that new tissue to behave the way it is needed. Specifically, getting motor nerves to restore function to paralyzed muscle requires them to signal the muscle to contract when needed. So, a team … Continue reading Light activation may make nerves grown from stem cells better at restoring paralyzed muscle

Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. Naïve embryonic stem cells more versatile. We often talk about how valuable embryonic stem cells are because they are pluripotent—they can become anything in our … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: more versatile cells, heart disease and gearing up cell production