Evangelina Padilla Vaccaro of Coronais the new face of stem cell science in California. Born with bubble baby disease that deprived her of a functioning immune system, she was cured with stem cell therapy developed in Donald Kohns lab at UCLA, which has received millions of dollars in grants from the California stem cell program. Now shes a vivacious 4-year-old, depictedastride a hobby horse and clad in a pink sweatshirt bearing a lightning bolton the programs 2016 annual report under the legend CURED. Thank you all for the amazing work you do, her father told the program board during its Dec. 13 meeting. Evangelina represents the great potential of the $3-billion state program, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, but also its dilemma as it ponders its next chapter. Established in 2004 by a nearly 60-40 vote for Proposition 71, CIRM began issuing grants in 2006. Now, after 10 years, the program has committed $2.2 billion of its bond-funded war chest. Its expecting to spend the rest by the end of 2020. So it wont be long before CIRM must confront the question of whether to fold up shop when its well runs dry, seek … Continue reading →

For many people suffering from disabling conditions, such as Parkinsons disease, spinal injury and paralysis, heart disease, and even cancer, announcements in the press around breakthroughs in stem cell research undoubtedly bring hope. Keeping the balance between hope and hype is a difficult one, particularly when there are vulnerable and suffering people relying on the hope medical research offers. As Australian of the Year, Emeritus Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, stated in his acceptance speech, there are now many clinical trials being performed in Australia and around the globe, to determine whether the delivery of certain types of cells, including some grown from stem cells, into the spinal column can allow patients with spinal cord injury to regain function. For these individuals, even a small gain of functionis a major advance. However, as yet there is no stem cell silver bullet. And stem cells that have shown promise can also cause complications. It was also reported a paraplegic woman developed a growth in her spine many years after an unsuccessful spinal stem cell treatmentHence, more research to test these and other types of cells in well-run clinical trials is required to move from anecdote to safe and effective therapies. The GLP aggregated … Continue reading →

You can be anything you want just like a stem cell. That was a key lesson for the 500 middle and high school students at the USC Stem Cell Day of Discovery on USCs Health Sciences Campus. It was a true joy to welcome the middle and high school students from our neighboring communities in Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, the San Gabriel Valley and throughout Los Angeles, said Rohit Varma, dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. This bright young generation brings tremendous potential to their future pursuits in biotechnology and beyond. Hosted by USC Civic Engagement and USC Stem Cell, the Feb. 4 event introduced the students to stem cell scientists. Dont be shy, said Andy McMahon, director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. Ask our scientists questions. Ask them about their science, but also ask them about their personal journeys that led to where they are. The students followed McMahons advice as they engaged in fun activities and lively conversations. They visited labs to get hands-on experience with microscopes and pipettes. They competed as contestants in a stem cell edition of Family Feud, viewed … Continue reading →

As stem cell research continues to be a very divisive topic, a new study has revealed that the general public is much more willing to accept it than politicians. Image in Public Domain. The Swiss are very liberal with their referendums they have quite a few every year. This offers a unique and direct perspective to see how voters think about a variety of topics including (in this case) embryonic stem cell research. They found that people were much more willing to accept the research than politicians. By analysing the outcomes of a referendum on a liberal new bill regulating such research, we reveal an about 10 percentage point lower conditional probability of the bill being accepted by politicians than by voters, the study reads. The motivations for the two categories of people are also quite different. For politicians, its all about the politics, whereas general people are swayed by different aspects. Whereas the behaviour of politicians is driven almost entirely by party affiliation, citizen votes are driven not only by party attachment but also by church attendance. If youve kept up with stem cell research, youre probably wondering why were talking about embryonic stem cell research (taking stem cells … Continue reading →

Overview Stem cells have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and give rise to multiple specialized cell types. They can develop into blood, neurons, bone, muscle, skin and other cell types. They have emerged as a major tool for research into the causes of ALS, and in the search of new treatments. Types of Stem Cells: The field of stem cell research is progressing rapidly, and The ALS Association is spearheading work on several critical fronts. The research portfolio supports innovative projects using IPSCs for drug development and disease modeling. The Association is supporting an IPSC core at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center providing access to lines for researchers globally. Several of the big data initiatives are collecting skin cells or blood for IPSC generation, such as Genomic Translation for ALS Clinical Care (GTAC), Project MinE, NeuroLINCS and Answer ALS. The ALS Association also sponsors pre-clinical studies and pilot clinical trials using stem cell transplant approaches to develop the necessary tools for stem cell transplant studies and to improve methods for safety and efficiency. We also support studies that involve isolating IPSCs to develop biomarkers for clinical trials through ALS ACT. In addition, the retigabine clinical trial that we … Continue reading →