The new UCSF stem cell building has made the news again. The September 19 issue of The New Yorker, architecture critic Paul Goldberger features UCSF’s Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine as one of three new science buildings in the United States “crafted with the specific intention of fostering interaction and connections, as a means … Continue reading UCSF stem cell building: generating therapies and making news

Tom Vasich at the University of California Irvine did a Q&A with CIRM grantee Frank LaFerla in advance of the September 30 Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference. La Ferla and his colleagues have been working on stem cell-based therapies for Alzheimer's disease. In a question about the public health impact of Alzheimer's disease LaFerla … Continue reading Alzheimer’s leader discusses stem cell progress

Northern White Rhinoceros; Photo credit: San Diego ZooWhat are those rhinos doing in a stem cell blog? Researchers at Scripps Research Institute have converted skin cells from those rhinos (or their San Diego zoo-mates) into reprogrammed stem cells. The team also created stem cells out of skin samples from a primate called a drill.Both projects … Continue reading Stem cells from rhino skin

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 produced several papers that address fundamental issues in the field of … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — August’s stem cell research highlights

A few weeks ago CIRM grantee at UC Davis Paul Knoepfler wrote a blog entry distinguishing hype from hope in the stem cell research field. This is no small task. The hype in this field is incredible (as evidence, see all too many headlines on the topic). But then, so is the hope. CIRM was … Continue reading Hope vs. hype in stem cell research

The CIRM governing board meeting yesterday, held on the Stanford campus, included a number of important agenda items — planning awards worth $1.8 million and changes to the grants review process to name a few — and one seeming sleeper item titled "Presentation and discussion of CIRM Translational Grant Portfolio." Yawn, right? But that's the … Continue reading Progress toward stem cell clinical trials?

Guest blogger Alan Trounson is President of CIRMYesterday, my colleague Uta Grieshammer used this space to describe a Nature paper out of Irv Weissman’s Stanford lab that sought to pin down which cells are responsible for the regrowth of the tip of a mouse’s toe after amputation.Salamanders and many lower organisms have the ability to … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson: What A Mouse’s Toe Tells Us about CIRM’s Investment

Regenerated mouse digit tip/Yuval Rinkevich  Guest blogger Uta Grieshammer is a science officer at CIRMA form of regeneration that has captured the imagination of scientists and the general public for many decades occurs in certain salamanders, as they have the remarkable ability to regrow a severed leg. Leg regeneration is unusual not only because it … Continue reading Of salamanders, mice and men – digit regeneration mechanisms revealed

In March 2011 CIRM began working with AlphaMed press to develop a new peer-reviewed journal to publish research that is translating basic stem cell science into new therapies. The idea was simple. AlphaMed had been publishing the elite journal Stem Cells for 30 years and recognized that the time had come to form a new … Continue reading New journal focuses on developing stem cell therapies

The NIH has approved four new human embryonic stem cell lines for federally funded research. The lines, from CIRM-funded BioTime, have one thing going for them that many other lines don't. They were developed in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice requirements, which is a critical step for developing a transplantation therapy. The FDA will only … Continue reading GMP grade embryonic stem cell lines approved by NIH