Bubble baby treatment cleared to restart clinical trial

Evie Vaccaro: Photo courtesy Nancy Ramos Three families battling a life-threatening immune disorder got some great news last week. A clinical trial that could save the life of their child has once again been given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The clinical trial is the work of UCLA’s Dr. Don … Continue reading Bubble baby treatment cleared to restart clinical trial

A look back at 15 years of CIRM funding at UCLA

Researchers in the lab of CIRM grantee Donald Kohn, M.D. Image Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center Since the first grant was issued in April 2006, CIRM has funded a wide range of research conducted by top scientists at UCLA for a wide range of diseases. To give a retrospective look at all the research, … Continue reading A look back at 15 years of CIRM funding at UCLA

Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half

Some of the stars of our Annual Report It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into … Continue reading Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half

Celebrating a life that almost didn’t happen

Evie Vaccaro You can’t look at this photo and not smile. This is Evie Vaccaro, and it’s clear she is just bursting with energy and vitality. Sometimes it feels like I have known Evie all her life. In a way I have. And I feel so fortunate to have done so, and that’s why this … Continue reading Celebrating a life that almost didn’t happen

Good news for two CIRM-supported therapies

Jake Javier, a patient in the spinal cord injury stem cell therapy clinical trial It’s always satisfying to see two projects you have supported for a long time do well. That’s particularly true when the projects in question are targeting conditions that have no other effective therapies. This week we learned that a clinical trial … Continue reading Good news for two CIRM-supported therapies

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

The story behind the book about the Stem Cell Agency

WHY I WROTE “CALIFORNIA CURES”  By Don C. Reed It was Wednesday, June 13th, 2018, the launch day for my new book, “CALIFORNIA CURES: How the California Stem Cell Research Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease!” As I stood in front of the audience of scientists, CIRM staff members, patient advocates, I thought to myself, … Continue reading The story behind the book about the Stem Cell Agency

SCID kid scores big on TV

One of the stories I never tire of telling is about Evie Vaccaro. She’s the little girl who was born with a fatal immune condition called severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID. Children with this condition have no immune system, no protection against infections, and often die in the first two years of life. But thanks … Continue reading SCID kid scores big on TV