iPS cells reprogrammed from skin (Kathrin Plath/UCLA)Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group A few weeks ago we held a meeting of our Standards Working Group to discuss medical and ethical standards relating to the recently approved proposal for creating a stem cell bank. I admit that a discussion of medical and … Continue reading Clear communication: Making sure patients understand stem cell research participation

Robert Blelloch The Scientist wrote a short profile of stem cell biologist Robert Blelloch of University of California, San Francisco in their monthly Scientist to Watch series.I’ll skip over the portion of the profile in which they chronicle his graduate school work, which was in the same roundworm that so scarred my own memories of … Continue reading Stem cell researcher Robert Blelloch on Scientist to Watch list #ucsf

We’ve been rolling out our 2011 Annual Report stories throughout the past few weeks. The full report is posted online and available for download. Today we are introducing a story about CIRM’s cell banking initiative.Frozen in two California labs sit 20 new human embryonic stem cell lines created by CIRM grantees and certified for use … Continue reading Making stem cell lines available to scientists who need them

Alan Trounson, CIRM PresidentEach 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.The first two articles featured in this month’s report focus … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — April’s stem cell research highlights

We’ve been rolling out our 2011 Annual Report stories throughout the past few weeks. The full report is posted online and is available for download from our website. Today we are introducing a story about CIRM’s efforts to overcome barriers in the path to the clinic.CIRM’s primary focus is on funding stem cell research. But … Continue reading Helping grantees overcome barriers in the path to new therapies

“Can one feel too attached? Does one need to let go to mature? Neural stem cells have this problem, too. “So asks a UCLA press release about work by CIRM grantee Bennett Novitch. He and a team have been working to understand how neural stem cells understand when it’s time to leave their protected homes … Continue reading How brain stem cells grow up: insights could aid in autism, brain tumors, language disorders

Senator Art Torres (ret.) is CIRM's statutory vice-chair April has been designated as National Minority Health Month, a cause that is dear to my heart and an issue we take seriously at CIRM. That’s one of the reasons we created the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program, to create a pipeline program for students that … Continue reading Sen. Art Torres discusses National Minority Health Month

There’s more news on heart disease today, this time from CIRM grantees at Stanford University. A team led by Joseph Wu used stem cells to create a model of a genetic disease called dilated cardiomyopathy in a lab dish and used that model to validate two approaches to treating the disease. Their work was published … Continue reading Stem cells used to mimic heart condition in a lab dish, test therapies

Our ultimate goal at CIRM, from day one, has been to get therapies to the people who need them most, the patients. That’s why our energy is focused on working with scientists in the lab and clinic, and patient advocates to move the most promising research along the development pipeline as fast as possible. This … Continue reading New CIRM initiative helps move promising therapies into clinical trials

Heart muscle cells directly reprogrammed from skin, Deepak Srivastava, Gladstone InstitutesCIRM grantees at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco have carried out a remarkable feat: They directly converted scar-forming cells in the mouse heart into beating cells.We’ve previously blogged about work led by Deepak Srivastava, who had converted non-beating heart cells in the lab dish … Continue reading Scar tissue transformed into beating cells in the hearts of mice