Dr. Charles K.F. Chan (Left) and Dr. Michael Longaker (right), Stanford University
Cartilage is a flexible, connective tissue in our joints that is important for cushioning our bones against impacts. This cartilage deteriorates as we age due to normal wear and tear and in some instances excessive damage or a deteriorating disease. The deterioration of cartilage is also the primary cause of joint pain and arthritis, which affects more than 55 million Americans.
It was generally assumed that adult cartilage could not be regenerated after damage. Fortunately, a CIRM funded project by Dr. Charles K.F. Chan, Dr. Michael Longaker, and Dr. Matthew Murphy at Stanford University found a way to use chemical signals to steer skeletal stem cells, which are responsible for the production of bone and cartilage, to regrow cartilage in joints.
Damaged cartilage is currently treated with a technique known as microfracture. Tiny holes are drilled into the surface of a joint, which activates the body’s skeletal stem cells to create fibrocartilage in the joint. Unfortunately, this newly created tissue lacks the flexible properties and cushion of normal cartilage.
The team theorized that there might be a way to influence skeletal stem cells to produce normal cartilage after microfracture. In a mouse model, the researchers used a molecule called BMP2 to initiate bone formation after microfracture. Next, they stopped the bone formation process midway with another molecule called VEGF. The result of this process was the generation of cartilage that had the same important properties as natural cartilage.
In a Stanford press release, Dr. Chan elaborated on these findings.
“What we ended up with was cartilage that is made of the same sort of cells as natural cartilage with comparable mechanical properties, unlike the fibrocartilage that we usually get. It also restored mobility to osteoarthritic mice and significantly reduced their pain.”
To show that this process could work in humans, the team then transferred human tissue into special mice that wouldn’t reject the tissue. They showed that human skeletal stem cells could be steered toward bone development but stopped at the cartilage stage.
The next stage for this research is to conduct experiments in larger animals before eventually starting human clinical trials. The ultimate goal of this treatment would be to help prevent arthritis by rejuvenating cartilage in the joints before it is badly degraded.
In the same press release, Dr. Longaker discusses the advantages of using BMP2 and VEGF for this process.
“BMP2 has already been approved for helping bone heal, and VEGF inhibitors are already used as anti-cancer therapies. This would help speed the approval of any therapy we develop.”
The full results of this study were published in Nature.
Don’t you love it when someone does your job for you and does it so well you have no need to add anything to it! Doesn’t happen very often – sad to say – but this week our friends at UCLA wrote a great article describing the work they are doing to target COVID-19. Best of all, all the work described is funded by CIRM. So read, and enjoy.
Two scientists in a lab at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
By Tiare Dunlap, UCLA
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, UCLA researchers are rising to the occasion by channeling their specialized expertise to seek new and creative ways to reduce the spread of the virus and save lives. Using years’ — or even decades’ — worth of knowledge they’ve acquired studying other diseases and biological processes, many of them have shifted their focus to the novel coronavirus, and they’re collaborating across disciplines as they work toward new diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines.
“As a result of the pandemic, everyone on campus is committed to finding ways that their unique expertise can help out,” said Dr. Brigitte Gomperts, professor and vice chair of research in pediatric hematology-oncology and pulmonary medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute. “So many of my colleagues have repurposed their labs to work on the virus. It’s very seldom that you have one thing that everybody’s working on, and it has been truly inspiring to see how everyone has come together to try and solve this.”
Here’s a look at five projects in which UCLA scientists are using stem cells — which can self-replicate and give rise to all cell types — to take on COVID-19.
Using lung organoids as models to test possible treatments
Dr. Brigitte Gomperts
Gomperts has spent years perfecting methods for creating stem cell–derived three-dimensional lung organoids. Now, she’s using those organoids to study how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affects lung tissue and to rapidly screen thousands of prospective treatments. Because the organoids are grown from human cells and reflect the cell types and architecture of the lungs, they can offer unprecedented insights into how the virus infects and damages the organ.
Gomperts is collaborating with UCLA colleagues Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami, a virologist, and Robert Damoiseaux, an expert in molecular screening. Their goal is to find an existing therapy that could be used to reduce the spread of infection and associated damage in the lungs.
“We’re starting with drugs that have already been tested in humans because our goal is to find a therapy that can treat patients with COVID-19 as soon as possible,” Gomperts said. Read more.
Repurposing a cancer therapy
Dr. Vaithi Arumugaswami: Photo courtesy UCLA
Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami, associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the Geffen School of Medicine
In addition to collaborating with Gomperts, Arumugaswami and Damoiseaux identified the cancer drug Berzosertib as a possible treatment for COVID-19 after screening 430 drug candidates. The drug, which is currently being tested in clinical trials for cancer, works by blocking a DNA repair process that is exploited by solid cancers and the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the UCLA scientists found that it is very effective at limiting viral replication and cell death.
“Clinical trials have shown that Berzosertib blocks the DNA repair pathway in cancer cells, but has no effects on normal, healthy cells,” Arumugaswami said.
Now, Arumugaswami and Gustavo Garcia Jr., a staff research associate, are testing Berzosertib and additional drug combinations on lung organoids developed in Gomperts’ lab and stem cell–derived heart cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. They suspect that if the drug is administered soon after diagnosis, it could limit the spread of infection and prevent complications. Read more.
Studying the immune response to the virus
Dr. Gay Crooks
Dr. Gay Crooks, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and of pediatrics at the Geffen School of Medicine, and co-director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center; and Dr. Christopher Seet,
assistant professor of hematology-oncology at the Geffen School of Medicine
Crooks and Seet are using stem cells to model how immune cells recognize and fight the virus in a lab dish. To do that, they’re infecting blood-forming stem cells — which can give rise to all blood and immune cells — from healthy donors with parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and then coaxing the stem cells to produce immune cells called dendritic cells. Dendritic cells devour viral proteins, chop them up into pieces and then present those pieces to other immune cells called T cells to provoke a response.
By studying that process, Crooks and Seet hope to identify which parts of the virus provoke the strongest T-cell responses. Developing an effective vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 will require a deep understanding of how the immune system responds to the virus, and this work could be an important step in that direction, giving researchers and clinicians a way to gauge the effectiveness of possible vaccines.
“When we started developing this project some years ago, we had no idea it would be so useful for studying a viral infection — any viral infection,” Crooks said. “It was only because we already had these tools in place that we could spring into action so fast.” Read more.
Developing a booster that could help a vaccine last longer
A COVID-19 vaccine will need to provide long-term protection from infection. But how long a vaccine protects from infection isn’t solely dependent on the vaccine.
The human body relies on long-living immune cells called T memory stem cells that guard against pathogens such as viruses and bacteria that the body has encountered before. Unfortunately, the body’s capacity to form T memory stem cells decreases with age. So no matter how well designed a vaccine is, older adults who don’t have enough of a response from T memory stem cells will not be protected long-term.
To address that issue, Li is developing an injectable biomaterial vaccine booster that will stimulate the formation of T memory stem cells. The booster is made up of engineered materials that release chemical messengers to stimulate the production of T memory stem cells. When combined with an eventual SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, they would prompt the body to produce immune cells primed to recognize and eliminate the virus over the long term.
“I consider it my responsibility as a scientist and an engineer to translate scientific findings into applications to help people and the community,” Li said. Read more.
Invariant natural killer T cells, or iNKT cells, are the special forces of the immune system. They’re extremely powerful and can immediately recognize and respond to many different intruders, from infections to cancer.
Yang is testing whether iNKT cells would make a particularly effective treatment for COVID-19 because they have the capacity to kill virally infected cells, offer protection from reinfection and rein in the excessive inflammation caused by a hyperactive immune response to the virus, which is thought to be a major cause of tissue damage and death in people with the disease.
One catch, though, is that iNKT cells are incredibly scarce: One drop of human blood contains around 10 million blood cells but only around 10 iNKT cells. That’s where Yang’s research comes in. Over the past several years, she has developed a method for generating large numbers of iNKT cells from blood-forming stem cells. While that work was aimed at creating a treatment for cancer, Yang’s lab has adapted its work over the past few months to test how effective stem cell–derived iNKT cells could be in fighting COVID-19. With her colleagues, she has been studying how the cells work in fighting the disease in models of SARS-CoV-2 infection that are grown from human kidney and lung cells.
“My lab has been developing an iNKT cell therapy for cancer for years,” Yang said. “This means a big part of the work is already done. We are repurposing a potential therapy that is very far along in development to treat COVID-19.” Read more.
“Our center is proud to join CIRM in supporting these researchers as they adapt projects that have spent years in development to meet the urgent need for therapies and vaccines for COVID-19,” said Dr. Owen Witte, founding director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. “This moment highlights the importance of funding scientific research so that we may have the foundational knowledge to meet new challenges as they arise.” Crooks, Gomperts, Seet and Yang are all members of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Damoiseaux is a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and director of the Molecular Shared Resource Center at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA
One of the wonders of regenerative medicine is its broad applicability, which provides us with the opportunity to build upon existing knowledge and concepts. In the midst of a global pandemic, researchers have responded to the needs of patients severely afflicted with COVID-19 by repurposing existing therapies being developed to treat patients. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) responded immediately to the pandemic and to researchers wanting to help by providing $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 related projects. In a short time span, this funding has driven innovation in the form of 17 new projects targeting COVID-19, many of which are based on previously developed concepts being repurposed to deal with the novel coronavirus.
One such example is a clinical trial funded by CIRM that uses natural killer (NK) cells, a type of white blood cell that is a vital part of the immune system, which are administered to patients with COVID-19. NK cells play an important role in defense against cancer and in fighting off viral infections. In fact, this exact same therapy was previously used in a clinical trial for patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
Another clinical trial funded by CIRM uses mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell, to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening lung injury that occurs when fluid leaks into the lungs. As a result of ARDS, oxygen cannot get into the body and patients have difficulty breathing. ARDS is one of the most serious and lethal consequences of COVID-19, which is why this trial was expanded after the coronavirus pandemic to include COVID-19 positive patients.
Despite these great strides in driving innovation of therapies, one challenge that still needs to be tackled is providing patients access to these therapies, particularly people from underrepresented and underserved communities. In California alone, there have been over 621,000 positive cases as of August 2020, with more cases every day. However, the impact of the pandemic is disproportionately affecting the Latinx and African American communities more than others. An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that the Latinx and African American communities have double the mortality rate from the coronavirus in Los Angeles County. Additionally, a surge in cases is being seen in poorer communities in comparison to wealthier ones.
Until a vaccine can be successfully developed and implemented to obtain herd immunity, the number of cases will continue to climb. There is also the challenge of the long term health effects of COVID-19, which can consist of neurological, breathing, and heart problems according to an article in Science. Unfortunately, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that despite disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death among people of color, they are significantly underrepresented in COVID-19 clinical trials.
The challenge of underrepresentation in clinical trials and research needs to be addressed by creating a more diverse population of study participants, so as to better generalize results to the U.S. population as a whole. CIRM Board Member Ysabel Duron, a leading figure in cancer education in the Latinx community, has advocated for more inclusion and outreach efforts directed towards underserved and underrepresented communities. By communicating with patients in underserved and underrepresented communities, building relationships established on a foundation of trust, and connecting patients with potential trial matches, underrepresentation can be alleviated.
To help in addressing these disparities, CIRM has taken action by changing the requirements for its discovery stage research projects, which promote promising new technologies that could be translated to enable broad use and improve patient care, and clinical trial stage projects.
For clinical trials, all proposals must include a written plan in the application for outreach and study participation by underserved and disproportionately affected populations. Priority will be given to projects with the highest quality plans in this regard. For discovery projects, all proposals must provide a statement describing how their overall study plan and design has considered the influence of race, ethnicity, sex and gender diversity. Additionally, all proposals should discuss the limitations, advantages, and/or challenges in developing a product or tools that addresses the unmet medical needs of California’s diverse population, including underserved communities. There is still much more work that needs to be done to address health disparities, but steps such as these can help steer progress in the right direction.
Driving innovation while addressing health disparities among people of color is just one of many opportunities and challenges of regenerative medicine in a post pandemic world. This blog post is part of Signal’s fifth annual blog carnival. Please click here to read what other bloggers think about this topic.
By: Dr. Kelly Shepard, Associate Director, Discovery and Translation, CIRM
CIRM 2020 Bridges Conference via Zoom
Every July, CIRM is thrilled to announce the arrival a new generation of stem cell scientists who are ready to hit the ground running as laboratory technicians, educators, communicators, or future leaders of their chosen profession. These diverse and remarkable individuals are the latest graduates of the CIRM Bridges Program, which provides students the opportunity to take coursework at California state schools and community colleges and conduct stem cell research at top universities and industry labs. The culmination of this experience is an annual conference where students are able to network with their peers and share their research outcomes with one another.
While the Bridges program has been operating in full force for 11 years now, 2020 brought some new challenges to everyone in the form of a global pandemic. Shelter in place orders- cancellation of in person classes- travel restrictions…. these are only a few of the factors that have touched our lives in recent months. But sometimes challenges bring opportunities and a new way of doing things. Through the collective efforts of program directors, institutional officials, mentors and students, the 2020 Bridges alumni were able to complete their training requirements at their institutions and present their research at the Annual Bridges Conference, which was conducted virtually this year. While visiting students posters via Zoom, we at CIRM were thrilled to learn that many of them already had jobs waiting for them or had been accepted into PhD or MD programs, similar to alumni from previous years, which now number over 1400.
While we cannot predict all of the twists and turns that life may bring us, we can be confident that scientific research and discovery will remain essential to creating a brighter future, and that Bridges alumni will be there to help us navigate it.
A diabetic child is checking her blood sugar level (self glycaemia).
Type 1 diabetes affects millions of people. It is a disease where beta islet cells in the pancreas are targeted by the body’s own immune system, destroying the ability to produce insulin. Without insulin, the body cannot break down sugars from the bloodstream that produce energy for organs and that can lead to many significant health problems including damage to the eyes, nerves, and kidneys. It is a life-long condition, most commonly triggered in children and teenagers. However, type 1 diabetes can manifest at any time. I have a family member who developed type 1 diabetes well into adulthood and had to dramatically alter his lifestyle to live with it.
Fortunately most people can now live with the disease. There was a time, dating back to ancient civilizations when getting type 1 diabetes meant early death. Thankfully, over the past hundred years, treatments have been developed to address the disease. The first widespread treatment developed in the 1920s was injections of animal insulin isolated from pancreatic islets in cattle and pigs. Over 50 years later the first genetically engineered human insulin was produced using E. coli bacteria, and variations of this are still used today. However, the disease is still very challenging to manage. My family member constantly monitors his blood sugar and gives himself injections of insulin to regulate his blood sugar.
A therapy that can self-regulate blood sugar levels for diabetes would greatly improve the lives of millions of people that deal with the disease. Pancreatic islet cells transplanted into patients can act as a natural rheostat to continually control blood sugar levels. Pancreas organ transplantation and islet cell transplantation are treatment options that will accomplish this. Both options are limited in supply and patients must be kept on life-long immunosuppression so the body does not reject the transplant. Pancreatic beta cells are also being developed from pluripotent stem cells (these are cells that have the ability to be turned into almost any other kind of cell in the body).
Now in an advance using pluripotent stem cells, Dr. Ronald Evans and his team at the Salk Institute have created cell clusters called organoids that mimic several properties of the pancreas. Previously, in work supported by CIRM, the team discovered that a genetic switch called ERR-gamma caused the cells to both produce insulin and be functional to respond to sugar levels in the bloodstream. They incorporated these findings to create their functional islet clusters that they term “human islet-like islet organoids” (HILOs). Knowing that the immune system is a major barrier for long term cell replacement therapy, Dr. Evans’ team engineered the HILOs, in work also funded by CIRM, to be resistant to immune cells by expressing the checkpoint protein PD-L1. PD-L1 is a major target for immunotherapies whose discovery led to a Nobel Prize in 2018. Expressing PD-L1 acts as an immune blocker.
When the PD-L1 engineered HILOs were transplanted into diabetic mice with functioning immune systems, they were able to sustain blood glucose control for time periods up to 50 days. The researchers also saw significantly less mobilization of immune cells after transplantation. The hope is that these engineered HILOs can eventually be developed as a long term therapy for type 1 diabetes patients without the need for lifelong immunosuppression.
In a press release, the Salk researchers acknowledge that more research needs to be done before this system can be advanced to clinical trials. For example, the transplanted organoids need to be tested in mice for longer periods of time to confirm that their effects are long-lasting. More work needs to be done to ensure they would be safe to use in humans, as well. However, the proof of concept has now been established to move forward with these efforts. Concludes Dr. Evan’s in the announcement, “We now have a product that could potentially be used in patients without requiring any kind of device.”
The Deseret News is Utah’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has a big readership too, with the largest Sunday circulation in the state and the second largest daily circulation. That’s why when they publish paid advertisements that look like serious news articles it can be misleading, even worse.
This week the Deseret News (that’s not a misspelling by the way, the name is taken from the word for honeybee in the Book of Mormon) ran an advertisement written by the East West Health Clinic. The advertisement is about regenerative medicine and its ability to help repair damaged knee, hip and shoulder joints. It quotes from some well-regarded scientific sources such as WebMD and the National Health Interview Survey.
They also quote CIRM. Here’s what they say:
“In theory, there’s no limit to the types of diseases that could be treated with stem cell research,” the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) explains. CIRM posits that stem cell therapy could be used to “replace virtually any tissue or organ that is injured or diseased.”
That’s from a page on our website that talks about the potential of stem cell research. And it’s all true. But then the advertisement switches quickly, and rather subtly, to talking about what the clinic is doing. And that’s where things get murky.
East West Health offers therapies using umbilical and cord blood that they claim can treat a wide range of diseases and disorders from tendonitis to arthritis and suggest they might even help people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. But none of these have been proven in an FDA-sanctioned clinical trial or approved by the FDA. In fact, if you scroll down to the bottom of the website you find this statement.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA*
And they also say that “Individual results may vary”.
I bet they do.
There are many clinics around the US that claim that stem cells have almost magical powers to heal. They don’t.
What stem cells do have is enormous potential. That’s why we invest in solid, scientifically rigorous research to try and harness that potential and bring it to patients in need. But that takes years of work, meticulous testing in the lab long before it ever is tried in people. It takes working with the FDA to get their support in starting a clinical trial to show that the therapy is both safe and effective.
CIRM has long promoted the importance of the Three R’s, making sure research is regulated, reliable and reputable. We want to help advance promising regenerative medicine therapies and products while protecting patients from the risks posed by unproven interventions.
That’s why we have a commitment to only funding the best science, work that has undergone rigorous peer review. That’s why we collaborate with expert advisors, ensure all projects we fund are in alignment with FDA rules and regulations and that meet the highest standards set by the organizations like the National Institutes of Health.
There are no short cuts. No easy ways to just stick cells in someone and tell them they are good to go.
That’s why when we see advertisements like the one that ran in The Deseret News it concerns us, because people will see our name and think we support the work being done by the people who wrote the piece. We don’t. Quite the opposite.
If you would like to learn more about the kinds of questions you need to ask before signing up for a clinical trial or therapy of any kind just go to our website. And if you want to see the list of clinical trials we do support, you can go here.
It’s not often you get a chance to hear some of the brightest minds around talk about their stem cell research and what it could mean for you, me and everyone else. That’s why we’re delighted to be bringing some of the sharpest tools in the stem cell shed together in one – virtual – place for our CIRM 2020 Grantee Meeting.
The event is Monday September 14th and Tuesday September 15th. It’s open to anyone who wants to attend and, of course, it’s all being held online so you can watch from the comfort of your own living room, or garden, or wherever you like. And, of course, it’s free.
Dr. Daniela Bota, UC Irvine
The list of speakers is a Who’s Who of researchers that CIRM has funded and who also happen to be among the leaders in the field. Not surprising as California is a global center for regenerative medicine. And you will of course be able to post questions for them to answer.
Dr. Deepak Srivastava, Gladstone Institutes
The key speakers include:
Larry Goldstein: the founder and director of the UCSD Stem Cell Program talking about Alzheimer’s research
Irv Weissman: Stanford University talking about anti-cancer therapies
Daniela Bota: UC Irvine talking about COVID-19 research
Deepak Srivastava: Gladsone Institutes, talking about heart stem cells
Other topics include the latest stem cell approaches to COVID-19, spinal cord injury, blindness, Parkinson’s disease, immune disorders, spina bifida and other pediatric disorders.
You can choose one topic or come both days for all the sessions. To see the agenda for each day click here. Just one side note, this is still a work in progress so some of the sessions have not been finalized yet.
And when you are ready to register go to our Eventbrite page. It’s simple, it’s fast and it will guarantee you’ll be able to be part of this event.
Researchers Phung Thai (left) and Padmini Sirish were part of a research team seeking stem cell solutions to heart failure care. Image Credit: UC Davis
Repairing the permanent damage associated with a heart attack or long-term heart disease has been a challenge that scientists have been trying to tackle for a long time. Heart failure affects approximately 5.7 million people in the U.S and it is estimated that this number will increase to 9 million by the year 2030. At a biological level, the biggest challenge to overcome is cell death and thickening of muscles around the heart.
Recently, using stem cells to treat heart disease has shown some promise. However, little progress has been made in this area because the inflammation associated with heart disease decreases the chances of stem cell survival. Fortunately, Dr. Nipavan Chiamvimonvat and her team of researchers at UC Davis have found an enzyme inhibitor that may help stem cells repair damaged heart tissue.
Dr. Nipavan Chiamvimonvat Image Credit: UC Davis
The enzyme the team is looking at, known as soluble epoxide hydrolase (or sEH for short), is a known factor in joint and lung disease and is associated with inflammation. The inhibitor Dr. Chiamvimonvat and her team are studying closely is called TPPU and it is meant to block sEH.
In their study, the UC Davis team used human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), a kind of stem cell made by reprogramming skin or blood cells that then has the ability to form all cell types. In this case, the hiPSCs were turned into heart muscle cells.
To evaluate the effectiveness of TPPU, the team then induced heart attacks in six groups of mice. A group of these mice was treated with a combination of TPPU and the newly created heart muscle cells. The team found that the mice treated with this combination approach had the best outcomes in terms of increased engraftment and survival of transplanted stem cells. Additionally, this group also had less heart muscle thickening and improved heart function.
The next step for Dr. Chiamvimonvat and her team is to conduct more animal testing in order to obtain the data necessary to test this therapy in clinical trials.
In a press release, Dr. Chiamvimonvat discusses the importance of research and its impact on patients.
““It is my dream as a clinician and scientist to take the problems I see in the clinic to the lab for solutions that benefit our patients.”
The full study was published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Dr. Joshua Rhein, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine Image Credit: University of Minnesota
While doctors are still trying to better understand how to treat some of the most severe cases of COVID-19, researchers are looking at their current scientific “toolkit” to see if any potential therapies for other diseases could also help treat patients with COVID-19. One example of this is a treatment developed by Fate Therapeutics called FT516, which received support in its early stages from a Late Stage Preclinical grant awarded by CIRM.
FT516 uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are a kind of stem cell made from reprogrammed skin or blood cells. These newly made stem cells have the potential to become any kind of cell in the body. For FT516, iPSCs are transformed into natural killer (NK) cells, which are a type of white blood cell that are a vital part of the immune system and play a role in fighting off viral infections.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, FT516 was used in a clinical trial to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and B-cell lymphoma, which are two different kinds of blood cancer.
Due to the natural ability of NK cells to fight off viruses, it is believed that FT516 may also help play a role in diminishing viral replication of the novel coronavirus in COVID-19 patients. In fact, Fate Therapeutics, in partnership with the University of Minnesota, has treated their first COVID-19 patient with FT516 in a new clinical trial.
In a news release, Dr. Joshua Rhein, Physician at the University of Minnesota running the trial site, elaborates on how FT516 could help COVID-19 patients.
“The medical research community has been mobilized to meet the unique challenges that COVID-19 presents. There are limited treatment options for COVID-19, and we have been inundated daily with reports of varying quality describing the potential of numerous therapies. We know that NK cells play an important role in responding to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, and that these cells often become depleted in infected patients. Our intent is to replenish NK cells in order to restore a functional immune system and directly target the virus.”
In its own response to the coronavirus pandemic, CIRM has funded three clinical trials as part of $5 million in emergency funding for COVID-19 related projects. They include the following: a convalescent plasma study conducted by Dr. John Zaia at City of Hope, a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (a serious and lethal consequence of COVID-19) conducted by Dr. Michael Matthay at UCSF, and a study that also uses NK cells to treat COVID-19 patients conducted by Dr. Xiaokui Zhang at Celularity Inc. Visit our dashboard page to learn more about these clinical projects.
It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into action to make our own contribution to fighting the coronavirus.
This latest CIRM Annual Reportcovers 2019 through June 30, 2020. Why? Well, as you probably know we are running out of money and could be funding our last new awards by the end of this year. So, we wanted to produce as complete a picture of our achievements as we could – keeping in mind that we might not be around to produce a report next year.
Dr. Catriona Jamieson, UC San Diego physician and researcher
It’s a pretty jam-packed report. It covers everything from the 14 new clinical trials we have funded this year, including three specifically focused on COVID-19. It looks at the extraordinary researchers that we fund and the progress they have made, and the billions of additional dollars our funding has helped leverage for California. But at the heart of it, and at the heart of everything we do, are the patients. They’re the reason we are here. They are the reason we do what we do.
Byron Jenkins, former Naval fighter pilot who battled back from his own fight with multiple myeloma
There are stories of people like Byron Jenkins who almost died from multiple myeloma but is now back leading a full, active life with his family thanks to a CIRM-funded therapy with Poseida. There is Jordan Janz, a young man who once depended on taking 56 pills a day to keep his rare disease, cystinosis, under control but is now hoping a stem cell therapy developed by Dr. Stephanie Cherqui and her team at UC San Diego will make that something of the past.
Jordan Janz and Dr. Stephanie Cherqui
These individuals are remarkable on so many levels, not the least because they were willing to be among the first people ever to try these therapies. They are pioneers in every sense of the word.
Sneha Santosh, former CIRM Bridges student and now a researcher with Novo Nordisk
There is a lot of information in the report, charting the work we have done over the last 18 months. But it’s also a celebration of everyone who made it possible, and our way of saying thank you to the people of California who gave us this incredible honor and opportunity to do this work.
The Stem Cellar 