New research from our grantees at Stanford harkens back to my own days in graduate school. I was toiling long hours in a lab trying to understand what makes cells become different from each other. I mean think about it. One day, an animal is just a fertilized egg. Then it divides into two cells, … Continue reading One of these cells is not like the others, but how?

A few weeks ago we announced our CIRM Elevator Pitch Challenge. In the video above you can see our own Kevin McCormack explaining the challenge--each scientist has to explain their research in 30 seconds or less in a way that a lay person would understand.We ended up with 58 pitches, many recorded at our grantee … Continue reading CIRM Elevator Pitch entries are in, stay tuned for winners

CIRM grantees at UCLA have modified immune cells to fight melanoma—a deadly form of skin cancer. People with this cancer don't have many options available for treatment. The idea was to teach immune cells to recognize the cancerous cells and fight them off like they'd fight off an infection.To do this, the group took blood … Continue reading Teaching the immune system to fight skin cancer

photo courtesy Fir0002/FlagstaffotosIf you are a winemaker you want to have easy access to top quality grapes. If you are a chef you want to be able to get top-notch produce every day. And if you are a stem cell researcher you want to be able to work with high quality stem cell lines that … Continue reading Like Top Grapes for Fine Wine, CIRM Advancing Quality Stem Cell Collection For Disease Research

Image from mediateletiposEsquire published a long story profiling the work of stem cell scientist Anthony Atala. Among other things, Atala was the first to create a tissue engineered organ—in this case a bladder. It's a fascinating story about the science and politics of stem cell research. Atala's work has, at various times, been used to … Continue reading Esquire explains the science and politics of stem cell research

While Unistem2013 winds down in Europe it has been fun seeing the engagement of young students with stem cell researchers across Italy, Spain and the UK. This engagement is visible in most the faces in the photo above—you can’t capture all of a teenage audience. The organizers predicted that they would reach 15,000 students today.I … Continue reading Stem cell community connecting with high schoolers across Europe

Jonathan Thomas is CIRM Chairman CIRM Chairman Jonathan Thomas receiving the Research!America Paul G. Rogers Distinguished Organization Advocacy Award from Mike Castle, Research!America Board Vice Chair The news of our winning the highly coveted Paul G. Rogers Distinguished Organization Advocacy Award may have been a tad overshadowed by the news that a new Pope had … Continue reading CIRM chairman reflects on winning advocacy award from Research!America

The largest stem cell outreach event ever in Europe is taking place tomorrow. UNISTEM DAY 2013 expects to have stem cell scientists talking to 15,000 students from 250 high schools in Italy, Spain and the UK.More than 200 experts from 41 universities will take part in talks, demonstrations, lab tours, games, video, theater and music … Continue reading European stem cell researchers to talk to 15,000 students tomorrow

Shinya Yamanaka (1), Alan Trounson (7), Bob Klein (21), Paul Knoepfler (50), Jan Nolta (39), and Fred Gage (40) are all among the top 50 most influential people in stem cell scienceThe question is: Who are the most influential people in the global stem cell and cell therapy field? The answer is: we are.A little … Continue reading Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most influential of them all?

Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group Attendees talking around disease-focused posters at CIRM's public meeting  last weekMy 10 year old son attended the CIRM Public Meeting last week because he thought it would be cool to see what his dad has been up to and to learn more about stem cell science. … Continue reading “Cool”, “Clever”, “Awesome”: A 10 year old’s thumbs up for CIRM’s public meeting