The idea of CIRM as a dedicated state stem cell agency was one of the things that got me excited about starting my time as a professor doing research on stem cells in California way back in 2005-2006 on the job hunt. Fast forwarding to today now 11 years later, CIRM is still on the …
3 CIRM challenges: search for new prez, funding, & clinical POW! Read More »
CIRM announced today that its President and CEO, Randy Mills, is soon leaving for a new job as President of the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match in Minnesota. Update: Dr. Maria Millan, the CIRM Vice President of Therapeutics, will be its leader starting July 1 until a new leader is chosen. For this kind of …
President Mills Leaving, CIRM Needs New Leader to Navigate Future Challenges Read More »
Over at the California Stem Cell Report, David Jensen is reporting on some good news from CIRM for California on the stem cell clinical trial front. Stem cell biotechs Asterias and Capricor have stem cell trials supported by 20+ million in CIRM funding each and have been hitting milestones. These trials are progressing and so far have good safety …
Upbeat prospects for some California clinical trial efforts from CIRM Read More »
CIRM announced recently the funding of a number of exciting new studies. ViaCyte received additional funding to support its development of its hESC-based pancreatic progenitor cell product PEC-Direct clinic trials. This work is very promising. CIRM also funded additional diabetes-related research by Humacyte on engineering blood vessels for use in dialysis, which is very creative. I …
Stem cell good news: CIRM funds new cutting edge studies Read More »
Today an opinion piece that I wrote about CIRM was published in the San Francisco Chronicle. The unusual element here is that the article is critical of CIRM. More specifically I raised concerns about a recent political trend at CIRM under its new President Randy Mills lobbying for dramatically weaker stem cell regulatory oversight. The Chronicle piece was first posted …
The backstory on my opinion piece in SF Chronicle critical of CIRM lobbying Read More »
Over the years, the Vatican has expressed interest and even invested money in the adult stem cell field. Not surprisingly, they’ve also been critical of embryonic stem cell research. Interestingly their own stem cell meetings have at times stimulated heated debate for various reasons and one was even cancelled with at least part of the reason related to …
Perspectives on Vatican Stem Cell Meeting: CIRM, Embryonic & Adult Stem Cells Read More »
When I first started blogging here about stem cells in 2010, frankly it felt pretty lonely out there in cyberspace. Nature‘s great blog by Monya Baker and Natalie DeWitt on stem cells had called it quits late in 2009. For the most part the stem cell blogs and other Internet outlets present early in 2010 …
Best stem cell blog of 2015: CIRM’s The Stem Cellar Read More »
David Jensen reports on the future of CIRM as a “beautiful machine”. CIRM funds brain cancer research in a big way: Funding a clinical trial for deadly cancer is a no brainer. Glioblastoma is a fatal tumor that needs new clinical approaches so this is exciting. One of the goals of my lab is to find new …
Weekend science reading: fantastic found links including on CIRM Read More »
There’s a growing stream of stem cell good news of late. Stem cell biotech, TiGenix, reported encouraging Phase 3 allogeneic results on stem cells. A big milestone. I can’t wait to see the actual data. Its product, Cx601, has so far been safe and effective for perianal fistulas in Crohn’s disease. See more from Alexey on this. CIRM has funded the largest …
Stem cell good news briefs: TiGenix, Asterias, CIRM, Awards, & More Read More »
CIRM has reinvented itself in a new form, CIRM 2.0, under the leadership of its new President Randy Mills. CIRM is almost like a stem cell that has changed into another new kind of stem cell. Us scientists could see the change coming in the “programming” at CIRM in terms of how it was operating as …