Packed house for stem cell conference in Tokyo - Adrienne Shapiro front row, second from right One of the many wonderful things about travel is that it opens up your eyes and mind to the fact that, while there are many ways in which people around the world differ from each other, there are also … Continue reading Patient Advocates find their voice in a different language
Researchers
How do you know what patients want if you never even ask them?
Our mission at CIRM is to accelerate stem treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. But what if those needs are not just unmet, they’re also unknown? What happens when those developing treatments never even bother to ask those they are trying to help if this is what they really need, or want? The question … Continue reading How do you know what patients want if you never even ask them?
Patients beware: warnings about shady clinics and suspect treatments
Every day we get a call from someone seeking help. Some are battling a life-threatening or life-changing disease. Others call on behalf of a friend or loved one. All are looking for the same thing; a treatment, better still a cure, to ease their suffering. Almost every day we have to tell them the same … Continue reading Patients beware: warnings about shady clinics and suspect treatments
A meeting of minds: breaking down communication barriers between patients and doctors
One of the things that has always surprised me about stem cell research, or any scientific research, is that so often the people with most at stake never meet. Researchers spend most of their time in the lab trying to develop new treatments so they don’t often get to meet the people who are depending … Continue reading A meeting of minds: breaking down communication barriers between patients and doctors
Meet the proteins that tell stem cells where to move and how
Word cloud art work which shows all the proteins identified by the researchers The environment you grow up in can have a huge influence on how you turn out. That applies to people, and to stem cells too. Now a new study has identified 60 proteins that can have a big impact on how … Continue reading Meet the proteins that tell stem cells where to move and how
Stem cells could offer hope for deadly childhood muscle wasting disease
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a particularly nasty rare and fatal disease. It predominantly affects boys, slowly robbing them of their ability to control their muscles. By 10 years of age, boys with DMD start to lose the ability to walk; by 12, most need a wheelchair to get around. Eventually they become paralyzed, and … Continue reading Stem cells could offer hope for deadly childhood muscle wasting disease
New tech tool speeds up stem cell research
It’s hard to do a good job if you don’t have the right tools. Now researchers have access to a great new tool that could really help them accelerate their work, a tool its developers say “will revolutionize the way cell biologists develop” stem cell models to test in the lab. The device is called … Continue reading New tech tool speeds up stem cell research
One man’s story points to hope against a deadly skin cancer
One of the great privileges and pleasures of working at the stem cell agency is the chance to meet and work with some remarkable people, such as my colleagues here at CIRM and the researchers we support. But for me the most humbling, and by far the most rewarding experience, is having a chance to … Continue reading One man’s story points to hope against a deadly skin cancer
Faster, better, more efficient. Challenging? That too. An update on CIRM 2.0.
Changing direction is never easy. The greater the change the greater the likelihood you’ll have to make adjustments and do some fine-tuning along the way to make sure you get it right. On January 1st of this year we made a big change, launching CIRM 2.0. Our President and CEO Dr. C. Randal Mills called … Continue reading Faster, better, more efficient. Challenging? That too. An update on CIRM 2.0.
Discovery Days; bringing new life to the life sciences
Here are three words you don’t often see strung together: free, science, extravaganza. Yet that’s how Saturday’s Discovery Days at AT&T Park in San Francisco (home of the newly crowned baseball world champion Giants) is being described. The event truly is a celebration of science. It features more than 150 exhibits on everything from stem … Continue reading Discovery Days; bringing new life to the life sciences