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”
UC San Francisco
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
It’s all about the patients
Ronnie, born with a fatal immune disorder now leading a normal life thanks to a CIRM-funded stem cell/gene therapy: Photo courtesy of his mum Upasana Whenever you are designing something new you always have to keep in mind who the end user is. You can make something that works perfectly fine for you, but if … Continue reading It’s all about the patients
Building a progressive pipeline
Dr. Kelly Shepard By Dr. Kelly Shepard One of our favorite things to do at CIRM is deliver exciting news about CIRM projects. This usually entails discussion of recent discoveries that made headlines, or announcing the launch of a new CIRM-funded clinical trial …. tangible signs of progress towards addressing unmet medical needs through advances … Continue reading Building a progressive pipeline
CIRM Board Approves Clinical Trials Targeting COVID-19 and Sickle Cell Disease
Coronavirus particles, illustration. Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved new clinical trials for COVID-19 and sickle cell disease (SCD) and two earlier stage projects to develop therapies for COVID-19. Dr. Michael Mathay, of the University of California at San Francisco, was awarded $750,000 for a clinical trial testing … Continue reading CIRM Board Approves Clinical Trials Targeting COVID-19 and Sickle Cell Disease
How developing a treatment for a rare disease could lead to therapies for other, not-so-rare conditions
Logan Lacy, a child with AADC Deficiency: Photo courtesy Chambersburg Public Opinion Tomorrow, the last day in February, is Rare Disease Day. It’s a day dedicated to raising awareness about rare diseases and the impact they have on patients and their families. But the truth is rare diseases are not so rare. There are around … Continue reading How developing a treatment for a rare disease could lead to therapies for other, not-so-rare conditions
The Top CIRM Blogs of 2019
This year the most widely read blog was actually one we wrote back in 2018. It’s the transcript of a Facebook Live: “Ask the Stem Cell Team” event about strokes and stroke recovery. Because stroke is the third leading cause of death and disability in the US it’s probably no surprise this blog has lasting … Continue reading The Top CIRM Blogs of 2019
A future scientist’s journey
All this week we have been highlighting blogs from our SPARK (Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative medicine Knowledge) students. SPARK gives high school students a chance to spend their summer working in a world class stem cell research facility here in California. In return they write about their experiences and what they learned. The standard … Continue reading A future scientist’s journey
Breakthrough for type 1 diabetes: scientist discovers how to grow insulin-producing cells
Matthias Hebrok, PhD, senior author of new study that transformed human stem cells into mature, insulin-producing cells. Photo courtesy of UCSF. More often than not, people don't really think about their blood sugar levels before sitting down to enjoy a delicious meal, partake in a tasty dessert, or go out for a bicycle ride. But … Continue reading Breakthrough for type 1 diabetes: scientist discovers how to grow insulin-producing cells
Performance, Passion and Progress: and that’s just page one of our 2018 Annual Report
It’s hard to sum up the activities and achievements of a year in a single document, let alone one that’s just 24 pages. But that’s what we have done in putting together our 2018 Annual Report. It’s a look back at the year just gone, the highlights, the low lights (spoiler alert – there weren’t … Continue reading Performance, Passion and Progress: and that’s just page one of our 2018 Annual Report