Dr. Rosa Canet-Aviles and Dr. Rahul Thakar talking about tissue engineering at the ExploratoriumThe Golden Gate Bridge, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building are all beautiful, elegant structures. In a way they are works of art. They are also engineering marvels, designs that pushed the limits and skills of those who designed and … Continue reading Not your father’s engineers – changing perceptions about engineering for a new generation

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. Artillery shells containing mustard gasOrgans on a chip for chemical weapons testing. Chemical weapons are in the news right now a little too much for … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: chemical weapons, Parkinson’s Disease and Cancer

This post was originally published by the Canadian Stem Cell Network's Signals blog. Welcome to the official launch of the first StemCellShorts video: “What is a stem cell?” narrated by stem cell research great Dr. Jim Till. Join us again on October 11 and 25 for the online premieres of two more videos in the series.Anyone … Continue reading Introducing a new series of animated stem cell videos – StemCellShorts

More than 5 million people in the country suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and doctors estimate that about half to three-quarters of all dementia patients have Alzheimer’s.On this blog we often write about how our grantees are progressing toward a therapy for the disease, but we wanted to pull the best of those posts into one … Continue reading Best of the blog: Progress in Alzheimer’s disease research

Brain volume is reduced in people with Huntington's disease. Image: Frank Gaillard, Wikimedia commonsThe deadly neurodegenerative condition Huntington's disease occurs in people with a mutation in a gene called huntingtin. Scientists have known that since 1993.The question has been what to do about it. There is currently no therapy to slow or halt the inevitable … Continue reading Two CIRM grantees collaborate with novel technologies to halt Huntington’s

This summer we're sponsoring high school interns in stem cell labs throughout California. We asked those students to contribute to our Instagram photos and YouTube videos about life in the lab, and write about their experiences.In addition to carrying out a stem cell research project, the students were expected to carry out a secondary project relating their work to … Continue reading Through their lens: Charlotte Hayward on why young people should learn about stem cells and computation

It's nice to see our sentiments expressed by someone as influential as Michael Moritz, a venture capital investor who previously supported successes like Google and PayPal. Like us, he thinks it's important to fund future scientists as well as the research itself.University of California, San Francisco just announced a $30 million gift from Moriz and … Continue reading Funding young scientists key to future therapies: investor creates endowment to support UCSF graduate students

Human chromosomes showing location of dystrophin gene. Credit: Wessex Reg. Genetics Centre. Wellcome ImagesThe New York Times has a detailed story today about an experimental therapy for the devastating childhood disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The Times story describes the effects of muscular dystrophy:Duchenne, which affects as many as 15,000 Americans, mainly boys, is the most … Continue reading Testing a therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in patient stem cells

Robin Roth, co-chair of the San Francisco hepatitis C task forceThe winning team’s name at yesterday’s Bay Area American Liver Foundation fundraiser sort of said it all. Team Life Is Good raised more than $5,000 for the cause, while their moniker pointed to the yin and yang of emotions in the crowd.Liver disease, ranging from … Continue reading Incredible resilience on ample display at annual liver walk

Mouse models are awesome. No, I’m not referring to a new low in reality TV. I’m just pointing out that over the decades, the use of laboratory mice has been vital to understanding human biology and treating human diseases.There are many reasons, both physiologic and practical, that make mice an ideal “model” of humans: their … Continue reading New Video: Spotlight on Muscular Dystrophy and Stem Cell Research – Building a Better Mouse Model