California Cures‪!‬

Thirteen years ago, America faced an epidemic of chronic disease: cancer, paralysis, blindness, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and more. But California voters said "YES!" to a $3 billion stem cell research program: the awkwardly-named California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Born into battle, the scrappy little state agency was immediately blocked by three years of anti-science lawsuits — but it defeated them all. And then? A quiet triumph. With a focused intensity like the Manhattan Project (but for peaceful purposes, not to build a bomb), scientists funded by CIRM took on the challenges: disease and disability called chronic: incurable. In a series of connected stories, accurate though written to entertain, "California Cures" relates a war: science against disease, with lives on the line. Think what it means for a paralyzed young man to recover the use of his hands, or for a formerly-blind mother to see her teenaged children — for the first time! Do you know the "bubble-baby" syndrome? Infants without a proper immune system typically die young; a common cold can kill. But for eighteen babies in a stem cell clinical trial, a different future: they were cured of their disease. No one can predict the pace of science, nor say when cures will come; but California is bringing the fight. The reader will meet the scientists involved, the women and men behind the microscope, and share their struggle. Above all, "California Cures" is a call for action. Washington may argue about the expense of health care (and who will get it), but California works to bring down the mountain of medical debt: stem cell therapies to ease suffering, and save lives. Will California build on success — and invest $5 billion more in stem cell research? "We have the momentum", says author Don C Reed, "We dare not stop short. Chronic disease threatens everyone — we are fighting for your family, and mine!"Contents: Introduction: Evangelina and the Golden State The Absolute Minimum You Need to Know First To Breathe, or Not to Breathe The Strongest Man in the World When the Dolphin Broke My Ear The Boy with Butterfly Skin The Great Baldness "Comb-Over" Replacement? "He Sees! He Sees!" Cop at the Window "Go West, Young (Wo)Man" — To a Biomed Career? And How Will You be Paying for that New Heart? The Answer to Cancer? A Political Obstacle to Heart Disease Cure? Your Friend, the Liver! "Bring 'em Back Alive" The Color of Fat Revenge for My Sister A Story with No Happy Ending? Aging and Stem Cells The "Impending Alzheimer's Healthcare Disaster" President Trump's Great Stem Cell Opportunity Leiningen's Ants and Parkinson's Disease On the Morality of Fetal Cell Research Democracy and Gloria's Knees Three Children, and the Eternal Flame Autism, Mini-Brains, and the Zika Virus Why "The Big Bang Theory" Matters to Me Musashi and the Two-Sword Solution "The Magnificent Seven" The Connecticut Commitment In Memory of Beau To Relocate Alligators, or Turn a Country on to Biomed? Whale Sharks and Outer Space Mr Science Goes to Washington? When Oklahoma is Not Ok James Bond and Melanoma Neurological Diseases vs. California Driving to the Storm Door into Tomorrow Stem Cell Battles — On Times Square? Annette, Richard Pryor, and Multiple Sclerosis Mike Pence, and Reproductive Servitude Motorcycle Wrecks and Complex Fractures Even Dracula Gets Arthritis Tugboat for Cure Wheelchair Warriors, Take Back Your Rights! Sickle Cell Disease vs. Stem Cell Agency Dwight Clark, "The Catch," and A L S A Friend is Lost Dying in Doonesbury, Fighting Back at UCD The Man with the Autographed Baseball The Gorilla Gynecologist Returns Wrestling the Invisible Enemy Two Warriors Named Joan An End to Heroism? Message from the Middle Kingdom Scientists and the Undocumented The Girl, the Bandit, and Women in Science The Greatest Proposal Forty-Two California Clinical Trials Gathering of Champions Goodbye, Hello! The Answer A Nobel Prize for Bob Klein? Afterword: For More...