Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, CIRM converted its 2020 Grantee Meeting with UC Irvine & UC San Diego to a completely virtual format this year. Held on September 14 & 15, we brought together stem cell scientists and trainees that have received CIRM funding.  In addition to the complex science, we also heard from patients and patient advocates.

If you missed it, we have uploaded all the talks and sessions to our Youtube Channel. To make it more convenient to navigate, you can find all the talks in one place by checking out our CIRM Grantee Meeting 2020 Playlist.

If you want a more extensive breakdown of the talks and sessions, we’ve got you covered there too! We have organized the videos by sessions and speakers on the CIRM website, which you can access by clicking here. The Grantee Meeting this year covered a wide variety of sessions including COVID-19 clinical trials, neurodegenerative diseases, eye diseases, immune disorders, cancer, and much more.

Below are a few highlights:

In 2010 Sandra was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis. A drug developed with CIRM funding that targets cancer stem cells has given her a second chance at life. The drug, fedratinib, has received FDA approval and is now marketed as INREBIC©.

When Evie was born in 2012, she was diagnosed with a fatal immune disorder called ADA-SCID. Her mother, Alysia Vaccaro, spoke about how a CIRM funded stem cell and gene therapy clinical trial cured Evie and gave her daughter a new chance at life.