Part of The Stem Cellar series on ten years of iPS cells For Chris Waters, the motivation behind her move from big pharmaceutical companies and biotech to starting a non-profit organization focused on rare diseases in children is simple: “What’s most important is empowering patient families and helping them accelerate research to the clinical solutions … Continue reading Making a deposit in the Bank: using stem cells from children with rare diseases to find new treatments
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: improving heart care, fixing sickle cell disease, stem cells & sugar
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. Using “disease in a dish” model to improve heart care Medications we take to improve our quality of life might actually be putting our lives … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: improving heart care, fixing sickle cell disease, stem cells & sugar
HOPE for patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-associated heart disease
It’s an exciting week for CIRM-funded clinical trials. Yesterday, we blogged about a young man named Kris Boesen who is responding positively to a stem cell therapy in a Phase 1/2a CIRM-funded clinical trial for spinal cord injury run by Asterias Biotherapeutics. Paralyzed from the chest down after a terrible car accident, Kris now has regained some use … Continue reading HOPE for patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-associated heart disease
Young man with spinal cord injury regains use of hands and arms after stem cell therapy
Hope is such a fragile thing. We cling to it in bad times. It offers us a sense that we can bear whatever hardships we are facing today, and that tomorrow will be better. Kris Boesen knows all about holding on to hope during bad times. On March 6th of this year he was left … Continue reading Young man with spinal cord injury regains use of hands and arms after stem cell therapy
CIRM jumped on the iPS cell bandwagon before it had wheels
Part of The Stem Cellar series on ten years of iPS cells The first press release I issued that announced new research grants after arriving at CIRM in 2008 detailed 18 “New Cell Line” awards. Ten of those grants, announced in June that year, were for a type of stem cell that had not even … Continue reading CIRM jumped on the iPS cell bandwagon before it had wheels
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: functioning liver tissue, making new bone, stem cells and mental health
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. Functioning liver tissue. Scientists are looking to stem cells as a potential alternative treatment to liver transplantation for patients with end-stage liver disease. Efforts are … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: functioning liver tissue, making new bone, stem cells and mental health
Sneak Peak of our New Blog Series and the 10 Years of iPSCs Cell Symposium
New Blog Series A decade has passed since Dr. Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues discovered the Nobel Prize-winning technology called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These stem cells can be derived from adult tissue and can develop into any cell type in the body. They are an extremely useful tool to model disease in a … Continue reading Sneak Peak of our New Blog Series and the 10 Years of iPSCs Cell Symposium
Clearing the first hurdle: spinal cord injury trial passes safety review
Starting a clinical trial is like taking a step into the unknown. It’s moving a potential therapy out of the lab and testing it in people. To reach this point the researchers have done a lot of work trying to ensure the therapy is safe. But that work was done in the lab, and on … Continue reading Clearing the first hurdle: spinal cord injury trial passes safety review
Beige isn’t bland when it comes to solving the obesity epidemic
Americans spend over $60 billion a year to lose weight and yet two-thirds (that’s more than 200 million) are considered overweight or obese. Losing weight should be easy: just eat less and exercise more, right? But our body’s metabolism is a very complex thing and appears to fight against our best efforts to shed pounds. … Continue reading Beige isn’t bland when it comes to solving the obesity epidemic
Seeing is believing: how some scientists – including two funded by CIRM – are working to help the blind see
“A pale hue”. For most of us that is a simple description, an observation about color. For Kristin Macdonald it’s a glimpse of the future. In some ways it’s a miracle. Kristin lost her sight to retinitis pigmentosa (RP). For many years she was virtually blind. But now, thanks to a clinical trial funded by … Continue reading Seeing is believing: how some scientists – including two funded by CIRM – are working to help the blind see
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