Dr. Vito Imbasciani elected Chair of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Voters created CIRM in 2004 and renewed its funding in 2020 to advance stem cell and regenerative medicine research. Board Support At January’s meeting, the agency’s 35‑member Governing Board elected Imbasciani to a six‑year term. He succeeds Jonathan Thomas, who has served … Continue reading Dr. Vito Imbasciani elected Chair of CIRM
Month: January 2023
Investing in a stem cell treatment for Hurler syndrome
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $5,444,353 to Dr. Natalia Gomez-Ospina and her team at Stanford University for a late-stage preclinical program targeting Severe Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1, also known as Hurler syndrome. This inherited condition is caused by a faulty gene. Children with Hurler syndrome lack an enzyme that the body needs to digest sugar. … Continue reading Investing in a stem cell treatment for Hurler syndrome
Advancing cutting-edge treatment to improve kidney transplantation in children
Stanford physician-scientist Alice Bertaina, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics, has received about $18 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for a clinical trial to allow kidney transplantation without the need for long-term immunosuppression. Dr. Bertaina and her team at Stanford University were awarded $11,998,188 to test an approach that combines blood … Continue reading Advancing cutting-edge treatment to improve kidney transplantation in children
Investing in CAR T-cell therapy to treat cancer
Photo credit: UC Regents The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is investing $4 million to support Dr. William Murphy and UC Davis researchers in developing and testing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to treat various B-cell malignancies, from lymphomas to leukemias. In this Q&A—courtesy of UC Davis Health—Dr. Murphy discusses the importance of T-cell therapy and its … Continue reading Investing in CAR T-cell therapy to treat cancer
Update on SCID patient enrolled in CIRM-funded gene therapy trial
Photo credit: UCSF Hataalii Tiisyatonii Begay (HT) is paving the road for newborns with SCID. When HT was born in 2018 in a remote part of the Navajo Nation, he was quickly diagnosed with a rare and -usually fatal- condition. Today, thanks to a therapy developed at UCSF and funded by CIRM, he’s a healthy … Continue reading Update on SCID patient enrolled in CIRM-funded gene therapy trial
Funding development of a vaccine for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
Dr. Karin Gaensler. Photo credit: Steve Babuljak/UCSF Adult acute myelogenous leukemia—also known as acute myeloid leukemia (AML)—is a blood cancer in which the bone marrow makes a large number of abnormal blood cells. About 20,000 new AML cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S., with a five‑year survival rate of about 29%. In 2022, … Continue reading Funding development of a vaccine for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)