Last week my three year old scraped up the entire left side of his face. Today, there's barely a trace of the injury. That's the glory of three year old skin, or more precisely, the glory of three year old stem cells.Erin Allday at the San Francisco Chronicle had a story last week about the … Continue reading On stem cells, aging and hopes for spryer golden years

This past year, CIRM scientists made significant progress toward new therapies. Several disease teams showed that their approach is likely to be effective and they are likely to be reaching clinical trials on target in the next few years. Other groups made progress in understanding how embryonic stem cells form adult cells and tissues and … Continue reading Stories of hope and scientific progress in the CIRM Annual Report

CIRM grantee Robert Blelloch of the University of California, San Francisco won the 2011 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The society's annual meeting is taking place now in Toronto. Blelloch presented his research June 15 at 6pm and will participate in a press briefing at noon June 16. … Continue reading CIRM grantee Robert Blelloch wins ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award

The annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research is Mecca for the hardcore stem cell research community. The next four days will be filled with intense and detailed discussions of all of the molecular details of how stem cells work--details we need to understand to move stem cells into the clinic effectively … Continue reading ISSCR public symposium: Hope, passion and restraint for stem cell clinical trials

Today stem cell scientists and patient advocates are descending on Toronto for the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Among those registering and preparing for three days of science is Don Reed, who is one of 20 patient advocates who received a CIRM stipend to attend.  On his blog today, Reed … Continue reading CIRM sends Patient advocates to international stem cell meeting

Last week The Scientist carried a story addressing a topic near and dear to the heart of anyone trying to develop a therapy based on transplanting stem cells, whether they are embryonic, adult, or iPS cells: Where do the cells go once they are transplanted?The problem is this — if you, as a scientist, transplant … Continue reading Techniques for tracking stem cells necessary for possible therapies

Those of you who follow this space have read our opinions on embryonic vs. adult vs. reprogrammed iPS cells. For those of you who don't watch this space, here's our opinion in a nutshell: There is no "vs." All types of stem cells could be therapeutically valuable, and what we learn in one cell type … Continue reading Hit embryonic stem cell research, hurt iPS research too

Blood has been among the most sought after and hardest to achieve tissue that CIRM grantees are attempting to derive from embryonic stem cells. It's an obvious target. The medical system needs a constant influx of blood, which comes entirely from volunteer donors. Creating that blood in an unlimited supply from human embryonic stem cells … Continue reading Blood from stem cells?

Thirty years ago the first reports of a mysterious illness began appearing in the media. This illness would eventually become known as AIDS. CIRM board member Jeff Sheehy recently spoke as part of a KQED Forum radio show about the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS. As a long-time AIDS activist, Sheehy has been part of the … Continue reading 30th Anniversary of HIV/AIDS, CIRM teams making progress

Last week we blogged about work by Marius Wernig of Stanford University, who has successfully converted human skin into nerves, skipping the step of first converting the cells into embryonic-like iPS cells. Wernig is quoted in a Nature news story talking about whether the work could replace induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells or embryonic stem … Continue reading Marius Wernig on why we need many stem cell approaches to new therapies