Almost two years ago, Menlo Park-based Geron abruptly stopped their clinical trial testing a stem cell approach to treating spinal cord injury. Theirs was the first trial approved to test cells derived from embryonic stem cells. (We wrote a Q&A about that move.)The trial, which CIRM supported with a $25 million loan, stopped not because … Continue reading New life for Geron’s stem cell work

San Diego High School students learn about stem cells “Fascinating,” “amazing”, “awesome”. Those were just some of the words that students used to describe learning about stem cells as part of Stem Cell Awareness Day. These particular comments came from students responding to presentations by UCLA’s Michael Teitell. We’ll have more on that in a … Continue reading Thousands of California students have their eyes opened to the vast potential of stem cell research on Stem Cell Awareness Day.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive illness that causes muscle weakness, wasting and usually death within a few years. There are an estimated 30,000 people in the United States with the disease.On this blog, we’ve written about how our grantees are progressing toward treatment for ALS, but we wanted … Continue reading Best of the blog: progress in ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research

A panel of speakers discussed HIV Cure Research at a Town Hall Forum in San FranciscoLast night CIRM was one of the sponsors of a Town Forum on HIV Cure Research, along with the Gladstone Institutes and the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF. The panel of speakers included several who I’ve known since long before … Continue reading Hopes for an HIV cure: familiar faces talking about a new goal

Participants doing hands on activities as part of a Stem Cell Awareness Day event at The Scripps Research InstituteThe stem cell field’s rapid progress toward therapies invigorates all of us who have the privilege of working in it, either directly in the lab or at enabling agencies such as CIRM. Today, on the 6th annual … Continue reading Sixth annual Stem Cell Awareness Day! Share your knowledge, share the hope.

Adrienne Bell Cors and Nancy Rene have children and grandchildren with sickle cell diseaseAdrienne Bell Cors’ daughter is 34 years old. She has battled sickle cell disease all her life and it’s taken a heavy toll. It’s been tough on the family too. Too many hours spent in hospital emergency rooms, too many days spent … Continue reading Touching base with the boss: meeting with patient advocates

Human egg being nourished by a follicle. Image: Wellcome ImagesSometimes medical therapies arise in mysterious ways. Today, for example, one of our grantees at Stanford published a paper describing a new approach for treating some forms of infertility. So far one baby has been born using the technique.The thing is that what he'd set out … Continue reading CIRM-funded research leads to new treatment for forms of infertility, healthy child born

Dr. Rosa Canet-Aviles and Dr. Rahul Thakar talking about tissue engineering at the ExploratoriumThe Golden Gate Bridge, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building are all beautiful, elegant structures. In a way they are works of art. They are also engineering marvels, designs that pushed the limits and skills of those who designed and … Continue reading Not your father’s engineers – changing perceptions about engineering for a new generation

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. Artillery shells containing mustard gasOrgans on a chip for chemical weapons testing. Chemical weapons are in the news right now a little too much for … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: chemical weapons, Parkinson’s Disease and Cancer