Earlier this week the CIRM ICOC Board awarded $14.5 million to fund three translational stage research projects (TRAN1), whose goal is to support early development activities necessary for advancement to a clinical study or broad end use of a potential therapy. Although all three projects have their distinct area of focus, they all utilize CAR-based … Continue reading Latest CIRM TRAN1 awards focus on CAR-based cell therapy to treat cancer
CIRM Board Approves Continued Funding for SPARK and Alpha Stem Cell Clinics
Yesterday the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved $8.5 million to continue funding of the Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge (SPARK) and Alpha Stem Cell Clinics (ASCC). This past February, the Board approved continued funding for stem cell focused educational programs geared towards undergraduate, masters, pre/postdoctoral, and medical … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Continued Funding for SPARK and Alpha Stem Cell Clinics
How stem cells play “follow the leader”
Todd McDevitt, PhD Photo courtesy: Gladstone Institutes It’s hard enough trying to follow the movements of individuals in a crowd of people, but imagine how much harder it is to follow the movements of stem cells crowded into a tiny petri dish. Well, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco have done just that. … Continue reading How stem cells play “follow the leader”
CIRM Builds Out World Class Team With 5 New hires
Kevin Marks, CIRM's new General Counsel. Photo courtesy Modern-Counsel.com Following the passage of Proposition 14 CIRM has hired five new employees to help increase the team’s ability to respond to new challenges and responsibilities. Prop 14, which was approved by voters in November 2020, gives CIRM $5.5 billion in new funding. Those funds mean CIRM … Continue reading CIRM Builds Out World Class Team With 5 New hires
Medeor Therapeutics Completes Enrollment in CIRM-Funded Clinical Trial for Kidney Transplant Patients
A CIRM-funded clinical trial to help kidney transplant patients avoid the need for anti-rejection or immunosuppressive medications has completed enrollment and transplantation of all patients. Medeor Therapeutics’ MDR-101 Phase 3 multi-center clinical trial involved 30 patients; 20 of them were treated with MDR-101, and 10 control subjects were given standard care. CIRM awarded Medeor, based … Continue reading Medeor Therapeutics Completes Enrollment in CIRM-Funded Clinical Trial for Kidney Transplant Patients
New Study Shows CIRM-Supported Therapy Cures More than 95% of Children Born with a Fatal Immune Disorder
Dr. Donald B. Kohn; Photo courtesy UCLA A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that an experimental form of stem cell and gene therapy has cured 48 of 50 children born with a deadly condition called ADA-SCID. Children with ADA-SCID, (severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency) lack a key … Continue reading New Study Shows CIRM-Supported Therapy Cures More than 95% of Children Born with a Fatal Immune Disorder
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears – we have a podcast for you.
It seems like everyone, including my dog Freddie, has a podcast these days. So now we do too. According to the Podcasthosting.org website there are some two million podcasts in the world. Make that two million and one. That’s because CIRM is launching its own podcast and doing it with one of the biggest names … Continue reading Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears – we have a podcast for you.
CIRM funded study uses drug development in a dish for treatment of heart arrhythmias
Image Credit: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cardiac (heart) arrhythmias occur when electrical impulses that coordinate your heartbeats don't work properly, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or in an irregular manner. In the U.S. alone, almost one million individuals are hospitalized every year for heart arrhythmias. Close to 300,000 … Continue reading CIRM funded study uses drug development in a dish for treatment of heart arrhythmias
Identifying the visually impaired patients most likely to benefit from jCyte’s stem cell therapy
We have written about jCyte many times on The Stem Cellar. For one reason, they are showing really encouraging results in their treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP). And now they have taken an even deeper dive into those results and identified which patients may be most likely to benefit from the therapy. RP is a … Continue reading Identifying the visually impaired patients most likely to benefit from jCyte’s stem cell therapy
Remembering Eli Broad, philanthropist and stem cell champion
Eli Broad, Photo by Nancy Pastor The world of stem cell research lost a good friend this weekend. Eli Broad, a generous supporter of science, education and the arts, passed away at the age of 87. Eli came from humble origins, born in the Bronx to an immigrant father who worked as a house painter … Continue reading Remembering Eli Broad, philanthropist and stem cell champion