News to warm the damaged heart The New Year is getting off to a very good start for one of our grantees. Capricor Therapeutics just announced that it has signed a $337.5 million collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech, a division of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.Just a few weeks ago Capricor got approval to move … Continue reading Heartening start to the New Year for stem cell heart therapy

Penn State researchers directly turned a brain support cell into a neuron in a living animal. This finding has therapeutic implications for the many causes of nerve lossEach 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 … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — December’s stem cell research highlights

Killer T-cells attacking a foreign cell (Juan Gaertner/Shutterstock) After years of research, now with the right prodding, scientists can transform human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into virtually any cell type in the body. That’s what makes hESCs such an appealing cell source to repair all sorts of diseases and injuries like heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, … Continue reading Putting the brakes on immune rejection may help accelerate embryonic stem cell-based therapies

What will 2014 bring in stem cell research Predicting the future is always a tricky business, particularly for scientists who like to base anything they do on facts and figures and not just speculation. That’s why when it comes to something like the planets astrologers are more comfortable making predictions than astronomers. And when it comes … Continue reading Looking ahead to the year in stem cell research

Google “top 10 of 2013” and you’ll find lists of every topic imaginable: the top songs, movies, smartphones, college football plays of year – you name it. So to get a piece of the action, below we’ve posted our 10 most-viewed blog posts of 2013.One thing is clear from our list: you readers are hungry … Continue reading CIRM’s top ten stem cell blog posts of 2013

Lauren Miller: Photo credit: Ivan Nikolov / WENNOrdinarily we wouldn't write a blog on Christmas Eve, there's no one around to read it. But we couldn't let this wonderful news go by without mentioning it. We are delighted to welcome Lauren Miller - actress, screenwriter, producer and Alzheimer's activist - to our governing Board, the … Continue reading Actress, screenwriter and Alzheimer’s activist joins our Board

To be involved in science you need to be committed and persistent. Good science takes time. Sometimes it takes a lot of time. So when you hear that a project that you have been supporting has been approved to move into a Phase 2 clinical trial that you are funding, that’s pretty exciting.That’s just what … Continue reading Stem cell agency funded heart therapy approved for Phase 2 clinical trial

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.Mouse tails stained to illuminate the hair follicle stem cells. The image was captured using confocal imaging by NYC scientist Yaron Fuchs at the Howard Hughes … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: striking images, cerebral palsy, and hair loss

CIRM's Google Hangout on stem cell therapy for heart disease Imagine carrying around a computer thumb drive that has a complete read out of your genome so that should you need medical attention the doctors will have instant access to a blueprint of you so they can tailor their treatment for your specific needs.It may … Continue reading This is how your heart looks on TV; Hanging out with experts talking about stem cells and heart disease

Brain cells derived from human embyronic stem cells It’s always fun when you make one of those end-of-the-year-best-things list. In this case we, and by we I mean stem cell research, made the Wired magazine list of Best Scientific Discoveries of 2013 – even if we had to share top billing with a new meat-eating … Continue reading Stem cells make Wired’s list of 2013 scientific highlights