When most people think of Board meetings the usual image is of a fairly dry, business-focused talk around a big table. Clearly those people have never been to a meeting of our Board, the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC).They are never dry, or dull, and today’s Board meeting is likely to be even livelier than … Continue reading You won’t be bored at our Board meeting

On the first Monday of every month the stem cell agency staff all gather to talk about some of the most pressing issues facing us. It's a chance to share information and exchange ideas. At a recent meeting one of our legal team, Cynthia Schaffer, used the occasion as the inspiration for this blog. It is … Continue reading A view from the inside: one person’s perspective on the stem cell agency

Researchers have used stem cells to help retinal cells like these grow the blood vessels they need.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. iPS stem cells from cord blood for retina repair. … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: blindness, targeting cancer and science literacy

You know you have hit on an important topic when the conversation continues long after you expected it to end. That’s certainly what happened with yesterday’s Google Hangout on Diabetes that we hosted. While the Hangout itself was, I thought, engaging and informative, it clearly only began to touch on the full scope of the … Continue reading Hanging out after the Hangout – how a talk about a new treatment for type 1 diabetes sparked a deeper conversation

Peyton Manning (courtesy Jeffrey Beall/Wikimedia Commons/Flickr) Here in San Francisco, 49ers fans are still stinging from their football team’s defeat up in Seattle last Sunday. But there’s no denying reality: the stage has been set for Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. One of the popular stories during the two-week … Continue reading NFL Quarterback’s Super Bowl Bid Doesn’t Validate his Unproven Stem Cell Treatment

In science a logical hypothesis is not good enough. You have to do the science to put the logic to the test. A team at Ohio State proved this in spades in a recent study looking at cancer stem cells. Specifically looking at oral cancers, the team compared those cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) … Continue reading Surprising finding with cancer stem cells drives home the need for testing any hypothesis.

Photo courtesy Fotos GOVBAIt’s been well known for many years that the number of people with diabetes is on the rise, but the sheer impact of that increase is staggering. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the annual direct and indirect health care costs associated with diabetes rose to $245 billion in 2012. That’s … Continue reading Hangout with us tomorrow, it’s one hour that could change your life

A team at the University of Illinois combined flexible polymers and heart muscle cells generated from stem cells to create synthetic “micro-organisms” capable of swimming in the blood stream. The researchers hope to perfect their miniature bio-bots so that they can deliver drugs or target cancers.They modeled their bio-bots on one-cell animals and sperm that … Continue reading Stem cells provide the engine for tiny bio-bot, may deliver drugs one day

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. Bone disease treated in growing fetus. Two children born with brittle bone disease, which normally results in hundreds of fracture and slow growth, have developed … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: bone disease, Parkinson’s and healthy gut flora

ViaCyte's VC-01 delivery system Imagine a device, about the size of a credit card, that can be inserted just under the skin and that not only is capable of monitoring blood sugar levels but can also secrete insulin if those levels are too low.People with type 1 diabetes would call a device like that “a … Continue reading One hour that could change your life: a Google Hangout on Diabetes