In this blog we often discuss the fact that more often than not we do not yet know what type of stem cell is going to be the best one for treating any one disease. That has lead us to voice concern about commercial entities that promote many therapies using one cell type, which was … Continue reading Wall Street Journal video: Celgene CEO on how we know what stem cells are doing

Being an avowed news junky has its down sides. On mornings like today when so much of the New York Times and the SF Chronicle are filled with details of the upheavals in the Middle East, reading multiple newspapers can get a little depressing. So, when I got to work I was shocked and pleased … Continue reading A small bright spot in Egypt: 16-year-old student continues stem cell project

CIRM has always recognized that the hope of new stem cell therapies hovers in a distant future for patients who need therapy options today. That makes patients susceptible to false promises from practitioners offering unproven and unregulated treatments, some of which may be harmful. A few years ago we developed a stem cell tourism web … Continue reading Thirteen organizations issue joint patient advisory on unproven stem cell therapies

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. Blood platelets from donors are often in short supply. Being able to mass-produce them from stem cells could be a boon for cancer patients when … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: stroke trial overview, source of platelets and heart repair

Photo credit: HDBuzzResearchers have found a new way to snip and edit defective genes using pluripotent stem cells and a DNA-slicing protein from a bacteria that causes meningitis. The study, published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was a collaboration between researchers from UC Santa Barbara, The University of … Continue reading New method of gene repair developed for gene therapy and stem cell therapy combination treatments

Just a few of the Creativity Program students - with Mani Vessal, PhD in the middle (he's the one with the suit and tie) It’s quite inspiring to find yourself in a room with a group of people who have just found their calling in life and are excited about it. You can’t help but … Continue reading "Scary G" and the future of stem cell research

Just a few of the Creativity Program students - with Mani Vessal, PhD in the middle (he's the one with the suit and tie) It’s quite inspiring to find yourself in a room with a group of people who have just found their calling in life and are excited about it. You can’t help but … Continue reading “Scary G” and the future of stem cell research

Labs are facing closure because of NIH budget cuts  In the past few months we have written a few times about the impact the federal budget cuts known as the sequestration are having on medical research. Those posts are here.Today the Huffington Post did a good — and depressing — job of showing the impact … Continue reading Huffington Post documents the “Dark Age for Science”

Mouse heart muscle precursor cells created from embryonic stem cells at the Gladstone Institutes in the lab of Bruce Conklin. The past few months we have written about two themes emerging in stem cell science: neighborhood matters when you want to get a stem cell to grow up into a functional adult; and the best … Continue reading Heart rebuilt with stem cells learns to beat again

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. Better trash collection and longer life. In order for cells to survive they need systems for getting rid of the debris that accumulates as they … Continue reading Stem cell Stories that caught our eye: longevity, cell-virus combo for cancer, and cord blood