Benefits of the California Stem Cell Research Program
Benefit 65 of California Stem Cell Agency: THE MAN WITH THE PLAN TO ASSASSINATE CANCER?
By Don C. Reed It is said that when a person dies, his or her brain offers one last gift: highlights of its owner’s past. Favorite moments return, and images of beloved people. If that is true, I hope to see again my sister Patty, who died of leukemia. I miss her...
CIRM BENEFIT # 64: FIGHTING RETT SYDROME: The Woman Who Leaped Into the Sky
By Don C. Reed At the top of the ten meter platform, the young Chinese woman turned around, so her toes gripped the edge of the board, and her heels hung suspended over the blue square of water far below. She raised her arms, poised for one second, two…. Flexing...
TO MORE RAPIDLY HEAL A BROKEN BONE? Benefit # 63 of the California Stem Cell Agency
By Don C. Reed It was 4:00 in the morning, March 13th, 2019. I was at Roman’s house, providing medical care for my paralyzed son. The doorbell rang. Who could be visiting at such a miserable hour? It was my brother-in-law, Salvatore. “Gloria’s fallen,” he said, “The...
A BETTER RAT? Benefit #62 of the California Stem Cell Agency
By Don C. Reed When I told my wife Gloria I was writing an article about rats, she had several comments, including: “Oo, ugh!” and also “That’s disgusting!” Obviously, there are problems with rats, such as when they chew through electrical wires, which may cause a...
TO REMOVE SCARS?: Benefit # 61 of the California Stem Cell Agency
By Don C. Reed For a writer, scars are stories. For instance, on the next-to-last finger of my right hand, there is a tiny white scar, from when I was a diver at Marine World long ago. I had been scrubbing algae off the walls in the moray eel tank, inhabited by...
HOW TO FIGHT A RARE DISEASE — OR TWO: Benefit #60 of CIRM
By Don C. Reed Imagine a disease, terrible in its effects, but only a few people have it… will Big Pharma invest the billions required to find and develop its cure? Probably not. Lacking the possibility of profit, few corporations will risk a billion dollars plus...
FIGHTING BLADDER CANCER: Benefit # 53 (of 71) of the California Stem Cell Agency
By Don C. Reed Imagine a nightmare scenario. You go to the bathroom, and you urinate — blood. First, of course, you would wrack your brain for some harmless explanation: maybe you bumped into something, injuring yourself, so your kidneys are bleeding? Professional...
FIGHTING DUCHENNE: Benefit #52 (of 71) of the California Stem Cell Research Program
By Don C. Reed Caleb Sizemore approached the speaker’s platform, to address the Board of Directors of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Two things stood out: an astonishing smile, lit by blazing blue-green eyes — and the carefulness of his...
Benefit # 51 (of 71) of the California Stem Cell Program: COOPERATION WITH SACRAMENTO
By Don C. Reed I wish you could have been there, August 15th, 2018, at the state Capitol building, Sacramento, California. It was a Biomed Committee hearing for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), formed by the citizens’ initiative, Proposition...
