When someone has a heart attack, getting treatment quickly can mean the difference between life and death. Every minute delay in getting help means more heart cells die, and that can have profound consequences. One study found that heart attack patients who underwent surgery to re-open blocked arteries within 60 minutes of arriving in the … Continue reading Using skin cells to repair damaged hearts
Capricor
Ready, Set, Go: CIRM funded clinical trial for heart disease finishes patient enrollment
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States with over 600,000 deaths occurring per year. Patients with heart disease or heart failure are given treatments that attempt to prevent their condition from getting worse or improve some of their symptoms. However, no treatment exists that can completely restore their heart function … Continue reading Ready, Set, Go: CIRM funded clinical trial for heart disease finishes patient enrollment
HOPE for patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-associated heart disease
It’s an exciting week for CIRM-funded clinical trials. Yesterday, we blogged about a young man named Kris Boesen who is responding positively to a stem cell therapy in a Phase 1/2a CIRM-funded clinical trial for spinal cord injury run by Asterias Biotherapeutics. Paralyzed from the chest down after a terrible car accident, Kris now has regained some use … Continue reading HOPE for patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy-associated heart disease
Out of the mouths, or in this case hearts, of babes comes a hopeful therapy for heart attack patients
Lessons learned from babies with heart failure could now help adults Inspiration can sometimes come from the most unexpected of places. For English researcher Stephen Westaby it came from seeing babies who had heart attacks bounce back and recover. It led Westaby to a new line of research that could offer hope to people who … Continue reading Out of the mouths, or in this case hearts, of babes comes a hopeful therapy for heart attack patients
Rare disease underdogs come out on top at CIRM Board meeting
It seems like an oxymoron but one in ten Americans has a rare disease. With more than 7,000 known rare diseases it’s easy to see how each one could affect thousands of individuals and still be considered a rare or orphan condition. Only 5% of rare diseases have FDA approved therapies People with rare … Continue reading Rare disease underdogs come out on top at CIRM Board meeting
Regenerating damaged heart muscle attack
Images of clusters of heart muscle cells (in red and green) derived from human embryonic stem cells 40 days after transplantation. Courtesy UCLA CIRM-funded researchers at UCLA have identified a way that could help regenerate damaged heart muscle, potentially not only saving lives of who've had heart attacks. Heart attacks Every year more than 735,000 … Continue reading Regenerating damaged heart muscle attack
Taking stock: ten years of the stem cell agency, progress and promise for the future
Under some circumstances ten years can seem like a lifetime. But when lives are at stake, ten years can fly by in a flash. Ten years ago the people of California created the stem cell agency when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 71, giving us $3 billion to fund and support stem cell research in the … Continue reading Taking stock: ten years of the stem cell agency, progress and promise for the future
UCLA Study Suggests New Way to Mend a Broken Heart
When you suffer a heart attack, your heart-muscle cells become deprived of oxygen. Without oxygen, the cells soon whither and die—and are entombed within scar tissue. And once these cells die, they can’t be brought back to life. But maybe—just maybe—there is another way to build new heart muscle. And if there is, scientists like … Continue reading UCLA Study Suggests New Way to Mend a Broken Heart