Aaron Levine from Georgia Tech published a letter in Nature Biotechnology assessing state funding for stem cell research, and he came to a conclusion that matches our own. In a press release he said:"There's no question that these state programs drew a lot of scientists into the field."That’s good news; Given the difficulty of generating … Continue reading California funds the most stem cell research not eligible for federal funding

More good news for people with spinal cord injury out of the University of California, Irvine: two CIRM grantees collaborated with Palo Alto-based StemCells Inc. to develop a neural stem cell therapy that has been approved for a trial in Switzerland.Brian Cummings and Aileen Anderson did the preclinical work on the possible treatment, which will … Continue reading CIRM grantees at UCI collaborate on Swiss spinal cord injury trial

Yesterday a three judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court heard oral arguments in the legal case that has threatened federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research since August.Nature has an excellent piece with excerpts from the arguments. The central issue is whether funding for research using human embryonic stem cells is in violation … Continue reading Oral arguments made in federal stem cell case

The purpose of this blog is to talk about the advances in stem cell science, and the progress being made by CIRM grantees. However, sometimes CIRM itself is a focus of  news that warrants us updating readers about our own activities.There has been much speculation in the news about the person who will become the … Continue reading Run down on CIRM’s quest for the next chair

World AIDS Day seems like a good time to revisit a video we made this year featuring CIRM board member Jeff Sheehy, who is a long-time advocate for HIV/AIDS research:CIRM is funding two teams of researchers working on different approaches to treating HIV/AIDS (one at UCLA and one at City of Hope). Both involve replacing … Continue reading HIV/AIDS video for World AIDS Day

Advanced Cell Technology has filed an application with the FDA to begin an early phase trial of an embryonic stem cell-based therapy for macular degeneration. If the company name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same company that on November 22 received FDA approval to begin a trial for Stargardt’s macular degeneration. Both trials are … Continue reading ACT files to test embryonic stem cell-based therapy for macular degeneration

This past year has brought a number of advances in creating reprogrammed iPS cells and in directly reprogramming mature cells into a different cell type. With each advance comes the question: Where does this leave embryonic stem cells? And each time, stem cell scientists remind us that the advances are great and could potentially lead … Continue reading A stem cell by any name

The Sherley vs. Sebilius case that has put human embryonic stem cell research on pause throughout the country has an interesting new twist. According to ScienceInsider the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, which employs James Sherley, one of the two scientists who sued to block federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, has joined the … Continue reading Sherley vs. Sebelius and the redefinition of "research"

The Sherley vs. Sebilius case that has put human embryonic stem cell research on pause throughout the country has an interesting new twist. According to ScienceInsider the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, which employs James Sherley, one of the two scientists who sued to block federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, has joined the … Continue reading Sherley vs. Sebelius and the redefinition of “research”

The FDA has given the green light to the second trial based on embryonic stem cells — this one for a genetic form of blindness called Stargardt’s Macular Degeneration. The treatment, developed by Advanced Cell Technology, involves replacing the the layer of the retina damaged by the disease, called the retinal pigment epithelium, with new … Continue reading Vision loss trial based on embryonic stem cells begins