Kids made embryonic stem cells out of Play Doh at the Bay Area Science Festival.It was fun waking up yesterday morning to the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle "Science fair hits it out of the park." It was a bit of an obvious headline because on Sunday 21,000 people had come to AT&T Park, … Continue reading Kids lined up shoulder-to-shoulder to create stem cells

At our governing board meeting on October 26, the board approved a $30 million initiative that will be critical for making sure that research funded by CIRM eventually makes it to patients.In the past year, CIRM has begun funding early phase clinical trials for stem cell-based therapies. These early phase clinical trials are done to … Continue reading Forming industry partnerships, ensuring new therapies reach patients

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 lead story garnered considerable media attention. A team at the New … Continue reading Guest blogger Alan Trounson — October’s stem cell research highlights

Yesterday brought news about stem cells in older people. Today, there's news by CIRM grantees about how a single gene alteration in a stem cell can help keep an entire organ more youthful -- at least in flies.The work was by a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Salk Institute … Continue reading Fly stem cells give insights into aging and longevity

We've written quite a bit about research by CIRM grantee Irina Conboy at the University if California Berkeley (blogged here), who has found that the muscle stem cells in older people don't respond as enthusiastically to repair muscle damage — much to the dismay of aging athletes. What they've also learned is that environment is … Continue reading Older stem cells returned to youth

Good news for vampires and patients alike: Scientists in Edinburgh have generated red blood cells directly from bone marrow stem cells in the lab. This alternate source of cells could help the 4.5 million people in the U.S. who need a transfusion each year (from America's Blood Centers, which has many interesting facts about how … Continue reading Vampires get a taste of lab-grown blood

Erin Rhoades is a professional city planner and lifelong Berkeley resident. Ms. Rhoades' planning interests are focused on infill development and sustainability. Erin is a founding Board member of Livable Berkeley and the Board Chair.The Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences/University of California, Berkeley The Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health … Continue reading State-of-the-Art Science and Architecture combine for a World-Class Downtown

Jonathan Moreno is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.In a cleverly written but factually empty blog post, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council tries to justify his organization's opposition to human embryonic stem cell research. This time he avers … Continue reading Peyton Manning and how a political football goes flat

Geoff Lomax is CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group  Last week we posted on the initial views of scientists and policy analysts on the 10/18 European Court of Justice decision regarding the patentability of hESC products. The initial views were quite pessimistic with regard to hESC-based therapy development, although James Lawford-Davies did offer a … Continue reading The European embryonic stem cell patent ban: The Other Side of the Coin?