CIRM

Weekly reads: Kevin McCormack passes, HSCs & RXR, Ethics

Kevin McCormack, Paul Knoepfler, stem cell research

Out of the blue this past week we lost Kevin McCormack of CIRM to a heart attack. When I first heard, my reaction was that can’t be, but it is. About Kevin McCormack If you aren’t familiar with him, Kevin was officially Director of Patient Advocacy at our state’s Stem Cell Agency. However, he was …

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Prop 14 polling on CIRM re-funding stays moderately upbeat

CIRM-funding-Proposition-14-polling_sm

The State of California is considering re-funding its stem cell agency, CIRM, to the tune of more than $5 billion dollars, but the issue has generated surprisingly little media attention. The main coverage has been by David Jensen over at California Stem Cell Report. Prop 14 polling data non-existent in public domain To my knowledge, …

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Polls: will California approve Prop 14 to fund CIRM again? Should it?

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Back at the beginning of the year I surveyed you readers here on The Niche about the future of CIRM and whether California voters would approve more funding for it in November. That funding effort is now on the ballot as Proposition 14. A month earlier late in 2019 in my yearly 20 predictions for …

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Seth Rogen is a stem cell pitching Prop 14 for CIRM in funny new video

Stemmy-Stem-Cell-Seth-Rogan-for-CIRM

Should California’s Stem Cell Agency, more widely known as CIRM, get another round of funding from us California voters? I believe the answer is yes and I endorse Proposition 14, which would provide the funding for CIRM to translate dozens of clinical trials into some proven new stem cell-based treatments in the coming decade. However, …

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Rick Perry plugs Celltex MSCs on Fox for COVID-19 prevention

Rick-Perry-plugging-Celltex-stem-cells-on-Fox-News

Why is former Texas Governor/Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry plugging unproven stem cells from a clinic firm called Celltex for COVID-19 prevention on Fox News? Perry follows in Giuliani’s footsteps? And more generally, what is it with conservative politicians promoting unproven therapies for COVID-19 and in particular stem cells for the novel coronavirus disease? First, …

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Stem cell & regenerative medicine good news & pubs

Rosie-Barrero-CIRM-stem-cell-good-news

There is always plenty of complicated, mixed-bag news on the stem cell and regenerative medicine front so it’s great to highlight when there’s some good news out there. Today’s post includes several such upbeat items. At the bottom I’ve included a list of some recent interesting publications as well. Good news on vision front: jCyte …

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Please take a couple minutes now to help fund future of CIRM

CIRM-California-stem-cell-agency

The California Stem Cell Agency, better known by the acronym CIRM, has done a vast amount of good over the past decade and a half, and today it needs your help for the future. CIRM, which stands for the “California Institute for Regenerative Medicine”, has funded a huge array of stem cell and other research …

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Upbeat poll results on the future of CIRM funding

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I recently started 2 polls on the future of CIRM. The polls are focused on the effort led by Robert Klein to get more funding from the State of California for the stem cell agency. They asked readers about whether Californians will refund CIRM and whether Californians should refund CIRM. Basically, the polls are asking …

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Stem cell cha-ching! CIRM has economic impact in billions, 56K+ jobs

CIRM-impact

We here in California have been fortunate to have our own stem cell and regenerative medicine agency called CIRM, standing for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. How much has CIRM helped the California economy and has it had broader economic impacts outside of California? How will that impact its future? CIRM has been around …

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