Hank Gathers was a 23-year-old basketball player at Loyola Marymount University with numerous accolades to his name and a promising future in the sport. This all came to an end when he suddenly collapsed in the middle of one of his games and subsequently passed away. It was the beginning of numerous such sudden death … Continue reading A 3-D model of heart tissue gives scientists a leg up in studying heart disease
Stem Cell Stories that Caught Our Eye: Human Eggs From Stem Cells, A New Way to Heal Broken Bones and A Lab Grown Esophagus
Stem cell image of the week: Immature human eggs (pink) were created by Japanese researchers using stem cells that were derived from blood cells. A team of Japanese scientists say they have taken an important step toward creating human eggs in a lab dish. Their work, which was reported Thursday in the journal Science, outlined their research and explained … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories that Caught Our Eye: Human Eggs From Stem Cells, A New Way to Heal Broken Bones and A Lab Grown Esophagus
New partnership to make CIRM supported treatment for type 1 diabetes even better
ViaCyte, a regenerative medicine company long backed by CIRM, announced a partnership with CRISPR Therapeutics to increase the number of people with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) who could benefit from their PEC-Direct therapeutic implant. Last year, CIRM granted ViaCyte $20 million to facilitate development of PEC-Direct, a device that both transplants pancreatic progenitor stem … Continue reading New partnership to make CIRM supported treatment for type 1 diabetes even better
New Method to Create Human Neural Stem Cells May Regenerate Spine in Rats
Scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have created spinal cord neural stem cells (NSC) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which could feasibly represent a source of transplantable cells for repairing spinal cord injuries. The research, which was published in the journal Nature Methods, showed that the human spinal … Continue reading New Method to Create Human Neural Stem Cells May Regenerate Spine in Rats
California’s Stem Cell Agency Accelerates Treatments to Patients
The following article is an Op Ed that appeared in today's print version of the San Francisco Chronicle Biotechnology was born in California in the 1970s based on the discovery out of one of its universities and California is responsible for an industry that has impacted the lives of billions of people worldwide. In 2004, … Continue reading California’s Stem Cell Agency Accelerates Treatments to Patients
A cancer therapy developed at a CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic tests its legs against breast cancer
A Phase 1 clinical trial co-sponsored by CIRM and Oncternal Therapeutics, has started treating patients at UC San Diego (UCSD). The goal of the trial is to test the safety and anti-tumor activity of the Oncternal-developed drug, cirmtuzumab, in treating breast cancer. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer to occur in women, regardless … Continue reading A cancer therapy developed at a CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic tests its legs against breast cancer
Stem Cell Stories that Caught Our Eye: Killer Cells May Treat Cancer, CIRM-Funded Trial Shows Promise and Worms to the Rescue – New Research Could Lead to Human Therapies
Stem cell image of the week: Our stem cell image of the week shows natural killer cells (yellow) attacking a cancer cell (red). The cancer fighters known as CAR T cells have proved their prowess in recent years. Three therapies using the altered T cells against lymphoma or leukemia have won U.S. Food and Drug … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories that Caught Our Eye: Killer Cells May Treat Cancer, CIRM-Funded Trial Shows Promise and Worms to the Rescue – New Research Could Lead to Human Therapies
Deep dive into muscle repair yields new strategies to combat Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Researchers at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) reported new findings this week that may lead to novel therapeutic strategies for people suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD, a muscle-wasting disease that affects 1 in 7250 males aged 5 to 24 years in the United States, is caused by a genetic mutation leading … Continue reading Deep dive into muscle repair yields new strategies to combat Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Regrowing dental tissue with stem cells from baby teeth
New results of a clinical trial, jointly led by Songtao Shi of the University of Pennsylvania, who has also previously received funding from CIRM, and researchers at the the Fourth Military Medicine University in Xi'an, China, suggest that there is a more promising path for children with these types of injuries: using stem cells extracted from the patient's baby teeth.
Maria Millan Opens Up About the Current State of CIRM
In an article published to the SF Chronicle last week, reporter Erin Allday and Joaquin Palomino discussed CIRM, and how our work as an agency has paid off since our inception in 2004. The article, which is a part of a four part series, explores the hope and reality of the revolutionary science of stem … Continue reading Maria Millan Opens Up About the Current State of CIRM