Glioma image by Mikhail Kalinin, Wikimedia CommonsKaren Aboody faced the same problem as many scientists developing stem cell-based therapies for various diseases: How to know where the cells go after she transplants them into a patient.Aboody, who is an associate professor at City of Hope in Los Angeles, has a CIRM disease team award to … Continue reading Improved way of tracking stem cells after transplantation

Just as good insulation is critical for getting electricity through the cord that powers your computer (or tablet battery) so you can read this blog post, it’s also critical for neurons transmitting electrical signals down their long axons. That insulation is a fatty substance called myelin that forms a tube or sheath around the length … Continue reading Engineered stem cells become myelin super-producers

We write a lot about scientists testing various types of stem cells as a way of repairing hearts damaged by heart attack (here's one recent post). But the heart is more than just a bunch of muscle tissue, which is what stem cell scientists are usually trying to replace.With that in mind, CIRM grantees at … Continue reading Synthetic patch helps speed heart repair in mice

Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group CIRM is creating a stem cell bank designed to make high-quality patient stem cell lines available to scientists who need them (here's more about that banking initiative). Before embarking on this initiative, CIRM’s Medical and Ethical Standards Working Group, along with other funding organizations, … Continue reading Informing patients about tissue donation for stem cell banking

Alzheimer's patients often have neurofibrillary tangles caused by build-up of tau proteins. Image via Wikimedia CommonsOne difficulty in finding new therapies for neurological disease is that scientists can't peer inside a living neuron and watch how its DNA and proteins work--or fail to work. Researchers at Gladstone Institutes recently used stem cell techniques to overcame … Continue reading Understanding Alzheimer’s by watching errant neuron proteins in real-time

Health human T cell | NIAIDEach 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 month’s report, along with an archive of past reports, is available on the CIRM website.My report this month delves into some pretty … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — July’s stem cell research highlights