CIRM kicked off the 2016 International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Conference in San Francisco with a public stem cell event yesterday that brought scientists, patients, patient advocates and members of the general public together to discuss the many ways stem cells are being used in the clinic to develop treatments for patients with unmet medical needs.

Bruce Conklin, Gladstone Institutes & UCSF

Bruce Conklin, an Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and UCSF Professor, moderated the panel of four scientists and three patient advocates. He immediately captured the audience’s attention by showing a stunning video of human heart cells, beating in synchrony in a petri dish. Conklin explained that scientists now have the skills and technology to generate human stem cell models of cardiomyopathy (heart disease) and many other diseases in a dish.

Conklin went on to highlight four main ways that stem cells are contributing to human therapy. First is using stem cells to model diseases whose causes are still largely unknown (like with Parkinson’s disease). Second, genome editing of stem cells is a new technology that has the potential to offer cures to patients with genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia. Third, stem cells are known to secrete healing factors, and transplanting them into humans could be beneficial. Lastly, stem cells can be engineered to attack cancer cells and overcome cancer’s normal way of evading the immune system.

Before introducing the other panelists, Conklin made the final point that stem cell models are powerful because scientists can use them to screen and develop new drugs for diseases that have no treatments or cures. His lab is already working on identifying new drugs for heart disease using human induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients with cardiomyopathy.

Scientists and Patient Advocates Speak Out

Malin Parmar, Lund University

The first scientist to speak was Malin Parmar, a Professor at Lund University. She discussed the history of stem cell development for clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Her team is launching the first in-human trial for Parkinson’s using cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells in 2016. After Parmar’s talk, John Lipp, a PD patient advocate. He explained that while he might look normal standing in front of the crowd, his PD symptoms vary wildly throughout the day and make it hard for him to live a normal life. He believes in the work that scientists like Parmar are doing and confidently said, “In my lifetime, we will find a stem cell cure for Parkinson’s disease.”

Adrienne Shapiro, Patient Advocate

The next scientist to speak was UCLA Professor Donald Kohn. He discussed his lab’s latest efforts to develop stem cell treatments for different blood disorder diseases. His team is using gene therapy to modify blood stem cells in bone marrow to treat and cure babies with SCID, also known as “bubble-boy disease”. Kohn also mentioned their work in sickle cell disease (SCD) and in chronic granulomatous disease, both of which are now in CIRM-funded clinical trials. He was followed by Adrienne Shapiro, a patient advocate and mother of a child with SCD. Adrienne gave a passionate and moving speech about her family history of SCD and her battle to help find a cure for her daughter. She said “nobody plans to be a patient advocate. It is a calling born of necessity and pain. I just wanted my daughter to outlive me.”

Henry Klassen, UC Irvine

Henry Klassen, a professor at UC Irvine, next spoke about blinding eye diseases, specifically retinitis pigmentosa (RP). This disease damages the photo receptors in the back of the eye and eventually causes blindness. There is no cure for RP, but Klassen and his team are testing the safety of transplanting human retinal progenitor cells in to the eyes of RP patients in a CIRM-funded Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Kristen MacDonald, RP patient

RP patient, Kristen MacDonald, was the trial’s first patient to be treated. She bravely spoke about her experience with losing her vision. She didn’t realize she was going blind until she had a series of accidents that left her with two broken arms. She had to reinvent herself both physically and emotionally, but now has hope that she might see again after participating in this clinical trial. She said that after the transplant she can now finally see light in her bad eye and her hope is that in her lifetime she can say, “One day, people used to go blind.”

Lastly, Catriona Jamieson, a professor and Alpha Stem Cell Clinic director at UCSD, discussed how she is trying to develop new treatments for blood cancers by eradicating cancer stem cells. Her team is conducting a Phase 1 CIRM-funded clinical trial that’s testing the safety of an antibody drug called Cirmtuzumab in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Scientists and Patients need to work together

Don Kohn, Catriona Jamieson, Malin Parmar

At the end of the night, the scientists and patient advocates took the stage to answer questions from the audience. A patient advocate in the audience asked, “How can we help scientists develop treatments for patients more quickly?”

The scientists responded that stem cell research needs more funding and that agencies like CIRM are making this possible. However, we need to keep the momentum going and to do that both the physicians, scientists and patient advocates need to work together to advocate for more support. The patient advocates in the panel couldn’t have agreed more and voiced their enthusiasm for working together with scientists and clinicians to make their hopes for cures a reality.

The CIRM public event was a huge success and brought in more than 150 people, many of whom stayed after the event to ask the panelists more questions. It was a great kick off for the ISSCR conference, which starts today. For coverage, you can follow the Stem Cellar Blog for updates on interesting stem cell stories that catch our eye.

CIRM Public Stem Cell Event