Jeffrey Bartlett of Calimmune discussed the company’s CIRM-funded clinical trial testing a stem cell therapy for  HIV/AIDS

For many years we’ve been talking optimistically about stem cell therapies in the future. But last night we hosted a public forum as part of the World Stem Cell Summit in San Diego where we heard from several of our grantees who are helping people right now.

Bradley Fikes at the San Diego Union Tribune wrote about the event and quoted Catriona Jamieson, one of our grantees at UC San Diego whose CIRM-funded work has resulted in several clinical trials:

“We’re not talking about the future we’re talking about things that have already happened,” Jamieson said. She’s now working on a drug to halt the growth of cancer stem cells, the cells that often survive treatment to cause tumor regrowth.

We also heard from our grantees at Calimmune, who are currently running a trial to test a therapy for HIV/AIDS (we blogged about that here).

The panel also included two San Diego-based projects to develop therapies for diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Both of those groups expect to be in clinical trials soon.

Throughout the meeting we’ll be blogging about stem cell approaches to treating disease, some that remain in the future, but also some that are becoming a reality today.

Amy Adams