Cerebellar stem cells engineered to express Myc and mutant p53 (shown here) give rise to aggressive tumors that resemble a particularly malignant form of human medulloblastoma, providing a new model that will help scientists develop more effective therapies for this disease.When CIRM grantee Robert Wechsler-Reya received a Leadership Award to lure him from Duke University … Continue reading Personalized medicine may help treat childhood brain tumors

Sheng Ding of the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco has been making a name for himself in stem cell circles. Now he’s being recognized in the business community, earning a place on the San Francisco Business Times’ 2012 40 under 40 roster. Ding has a New Faculty Award and a New Cell Lines … Continue reading CIRM grantee Sheng Ding among the Bay Area’s 40 leaders under 40

Last summer CIRM piloted a high school internship program that brought students, many from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds, into stem cell research labs. One of those students went on to be a semifinalist in both the Siemens National Science Competition and the Intel STS National Talent Search. Ryan Chow of Leland High School in San Jose, … Continue reading CIRM Creativity Award student semifinalist in national science competition

According to a poll held by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, 63.1% of respondents said that CIRM initiatives had been either very helpful or somewhat helpful in advancing stem cell science. We couldn’t agree more. And for those 22.6% who said that CIRM was not very helpful, we encourage them to visit our website for … Continue reading Poll says CIRM initiatives advance stem cell science

A team of researchers at the University California, Davis have published work showing a way of stimulating the body’s stem cells to build more bone. In mice with a version of osteoporosis, the approach resulted in animals with bulkier bones in the leg and spine, and those bones were also stronger compared to those of … Continue reading Stem cells help build bones, could one day treat osteoporosis

Vascular smooth muscle cells differentiated from human embryonic stem cells stained for DNA (blue) and the smooth muscle markers smoothelin (red) and caldesmon (green).Leslie Caron, GENEA, Australia2011 IN Cell Analyzer Image CompetitionAn image of smooth muscle cells derived from embryonic stem cells was among the winners of the IN Cell Analyzer Image Contest. This image … Continue reading Stem cell image of the day: smooth muscle from embryonic stem cells

Today is National Women’s Heart Health Day, part of February’s National Heart Month. Why a day just for women? Heart disease is the leading killer of both men and women in the United States, but women are less likely than men to recognize their risk or to receive fast-acting drugs to improve their chances of … Continue reading Raising awareness and finding cures for heart disease and stroke

The California State University, Long Beach student paper posted a nice story today about an extension to the school’s CIRM Bridges to Stem Cell Research award. They quote program director Lisa Klig:"I'm delighted that CIRM was so pleased with our success during the first funding cycle of three years that they opted to extend the … Continue reading CIRM Bridges program trains CSULB students for cutting-edge jobs

A new paper from grantees at Stanford University School of Medicine reports an advance in directly converting one adult cell type to another. This paper, out of Marius Wernig’s lab, builds on his previous work converting mouse skin cells and then human skin cells into nerve cells.In recent years, a handful of researchers have managed … Continue reading CIRM grantees convert skin to nerve precursors

Each 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.This month’s review has to start by noting a key milestone for the … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — January’s stem cell research highlights