In Washington D.C. this week, researchers and patient advocates are giving feedback on what will become the nation’s war on Alzheimer’s disease, which aims to prevent and treat the disease by 2025. The Department of Health and Human Services released a draft Framework for the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease on January 9. After … Continue reading National war on Alzheimer’s disease brings hope to patients and caregivers

I was scheduled to give a talk to the Northern California Ataxia Support Group Saturday, just 15 minutes before the Fortyniners were about to begin their first playoff game in years. A colleague picked me up at the local BART train station and we drove up to a mostly empty parking lot at the church … Continue reading Ataxia patients and family members learn about stem cell progress

Today brought the news of a second transplanted synthetic trachea seeded with a person’s own stem cells. As with the first such transplant, carried out last June, this one replaced the trachea in a person whose own windpipe had been damaged by cancer.The timing on this story is exciting for us at CIRM. We’re currently … Continue reading Second synthetic trachea transplant shows promise of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine

Cynthia Schaffer is Contract Administrator and Compliance Officer at CIRM As CIRM-funded teams move closer to clinical trials, we’re ramping up our engagement with the industry partners who are integral to the success of most future stem cell therapies. In my role supporting many of these endeavors I saw a significant uptick in 2011 in … Continue reading CIRM boosts industry outreach efforts in 2011, more to come

Michelle Kim / University CommunicationsIn May 2010 University of California Irvine opened their new stem cell building funded in part by CIRM. In addition to its state-of-the art research facilities designed to speed the development of stem cell therapies, the Sue & Bill Gross Hall also recently received LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green … Continue reading CIRM-funded building at UC Irvine receives LEED Platinum certification

Last night, 60 minutes aired a report describing the dangers of what has become known as stem cell tourism – people traveling to other countries to receive unverified “treatments”. You can watch the episode here. In the story, they spoke with Gary Susser, whose son Adam has cerebral palsy. Susser and his wife took Adam … Continue reading 60 Minutes highlights concerns about clinics marketing unverified stem cell treatments

CIRM recently realized a noteworthy milestone with the publication of the 1,000th CIRM-funded paper in early December (here is a link to that paper). This is exciting to me personally because one of my first assignments when I joined CIRM three years ago was to develop (in collaboration with my Science Office colleague Rahul Thakar) … Continue reading CIRM’s 1,000th published paper targets Huntington’s disease

Yesterday CIRM president Alan Trounson took a look back over his science picks from 2011. Today, we're looking ahead to what's in store in 2012. First, anyone interested in participating in the 2012 board meetings should take a look at the governing board meeting schedule. That's available here. We'll be having seven meetings at locations … Continue reading Looking ahead to 2012

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 full report, along with an archive of past reports, is available on the CIRM website.My review this month starts with a couple papers that further cement … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — December’s stem cell research highlights

Forty years ago today President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, allocating $1.5 billion over three years for cancer research.The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has written an excellent piece on their blog about where the field has come since 1971. They write:Forty years later, the War on Cancer can claim countless successes against one of the … Continue reading The war on cancer: 40 years later