CIRM grantees at Stanford University and The Parkinson's Institute have an exciting Cell Stem Cell paper out today showing that they can mimic Parkinson's disease in a lab dish using reprogrammed iPS cells.The team, which includes Renee Reijo Pera and Theo Palmer and their lab members at Stanford and William Langston at the Parkinson's Institute, … Continue reading Parkinson’s disease modeled for the first time in a lab dish

CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group, Geoff Lomax, is blogging this week from Calgary where his attending the Canadian Stem Cell Network's meeting "Stem Cell Controversies".   The Stem Cell Network meeting Understanding Stem Cell Controversies is refreshing for its focus on clinical trials and efforts to get basic stem cell research to patients. … Continue reading Notes from Calgary: Stem cell hype and medical tourism

CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group, Geoff Lomax, will be blogging this week from Calgary where his attending the Canadian Stem Cell Network's meeting "Stem Cell Controversies".  Today kicks off the Canadian Stem Cell Network’s intensive three-day course titled Understanding Stem Cell Controversies. The focus is on emerging ethical and policy issues as … Continue reading Understanding Stem Cell Controversies — Texas Hold’em Anyone?

At the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, two members of CIRM’s HIV/AIDS Disease Team led by John Zaia at City of Hope presented new research showing the team’s progress toward the clinic.The team’s overall goal is to use technology developed by Sangamo Biosciences to modify the blood-forming stem cells of … Continue reading Guest blogger Jeff Sheehy – CIRM Grantees Show Progress Towards a “Cure for HIV” in Boston

Normal aging takes many decades to create major changes in our cells, so it is very difficult to study. As a result, very little is known about this fundamental inevitability of life. But that may change with the help of an unfortunate child, who by the bad luck of a single point mutation developed a … Continue reading Disease in a dish model provides insight on aging

This past week was muscular dystrophy awareness week, which seems like a short amount of time to focus on such a heartbreaking disease. One in every 3500 boys in the US develops that debilitating and fatal Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) - the most common and serious form of muscular dystrophy - and there is no … Continue reading Reflecting on muscular dystrophy awareness week

Gerhard Bauer in the UC Davis GMP facilityOne of the real thrills of working at CIRM is talking to the researchers who are so excited about finding new therapies. As part of our lunchtime talk series, today we heard from Gerhard Bauer of UC Davis. The only thing more exciting to Bauer than new therapies … Continue reading UC Davis scientist on a quest for cures in the cleanest of labs

Guest blogger Geoff LomaxSenior Officer to the Standards Working Group I was chatting, over a nice bottle of wine, with some long-time friends of mine at the Breakthrough Institute. They advocate federal funding to advance clean energy technology in the U.S. They were curious about the ongoing litigation over NIH funding for human embryonic stem … Continue reading From Sputnik to Stem Cells

It seems like the stem cell news cycle alternates between stories of incremental hope (take the heart disease model for drug discovery out of Stanford today) and stories decrying the woeful lack of cures out of CIRM. I think the popular imagination went from the word “cure” when Proposition 71 passed in 2004 to an … Continue reading Where are the cures?