Month of CIRM

Everything you wanted to know about COVID vaccines but never got a chance to ask

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we feature a rare treat, an interview with Moderna’s Dr. Derrick Rossi.

Moderna co-founder Dr. Derrick Rossi

It’s not often you get a chance to sit down with one of the key figures in the fight against the coronavirus and get to pick his brain about the best ways to beat it. We were fortunate enough to do that on Wednesday, talking to Dr. Derrick Rossi, the co-founder of Moderna, about the vaccine his company has developed.

CIRM’s President and CEO, Dr. Maria Millan, was able to chat to Dr. Rossi for one hour about his background (he got support from CIRM in his early post-doctoral research at Stanford) and how he and his colleagues were able to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, how the vaccine works, how effective it is, how it performs against new variations of the virus.

He also told us what he would have become if this science job hadn’t worked out.

All in all it was a fascinating conversation with someone whose work is offering a sense of hope for millions of people around the world.

If you missed it first time around you can watch it here.

Month of CIRM: Making sure stem cell therapies don’t get lost in Translation

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we feature a blog written by two of our fabulous Discovery and Translation team Science Officers, Dr. Kent Fitzgerald and Dr. Ross Okamura.

Dr. Ross Okamura

If you believe that you can know a person by their deeds, the partnership opportunities offered by CIRM illustrate what we, as an agency, believe is the most effective way to deliver on our mission statement, accelerating regenerative medicine treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.

Dr. Kent Fitzgerald

 In our past, we have offered awards covering basic biology projects which in turn provided the foundation to produce promising therapies  to ease human suffering.  But those are only the first steps in an elaborate process.

In order to bring these potential therapies to the clinic, selected drug candidates must next go through a set of activities designed to prepare them for review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For cell therapies, the first formal review is often the Pre- Investigational New Drug Application Consultation or pre-IND.  This stage of drug development is commonly referred to as Translational, bridging the gap between our Discovery or early stage research and Clinical Trial programs.

One of our goals at CIRM is to prepare Translational projects we fund for that  pre-IND meeting with the FDA, to help them gather data that support the hope this approach will be both safe and effective in patients.  Holding this meeting with the FDA is the first step in the often lengthy process of conducting FDA regulated clinical trials and hopefully bringing an approved therapy to patients.

What type of work is required for a promising candidate to move from the Discovery stage into FDA regulated development?  To address the needs of Translational science, CIRM offers the Translational Research Project funding opportunity.  Activities that CIRM supports at the Translational stage include:

  • Process Development to allow manufacturing of the candidate therapy under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This is to show that they can manufacture  at a large enough scale to treat patients.
  • Assay development and qualification of measurements to determine whether the drug is being manufactured safely while retaining its curative properties.
  • Studies to determine the optimal dose and the best way to deliver that dose.
  • Pilot safety studies looking how the patient might respond after treatment with the drug.
  • The development of a clinical plan indicating under what rules and conditions the drug might be prescribed to a patient. 

These, and other activities supported under our Translational funding program, all help to inform the FDA when they consider what pivotal studies they will require prior to approving an Investigational New Drug (IND) application, the next step in the regulatory approval process.

Since CIRM first offered programs specifically aimed at addressing the Translational stage of therapeutic candidates we have made 41 awards totaling approximately $150 million in funding.  To date, 13 have successfully completed and achieved their program goals, while 19 others are still actively working towards meeting their objective.  Additionally, three (treating Spina Bifida, Osteonecrosis, and Sickle Cell Disease) of the 13 programs have gone on to receive further CIRM support through our Clinical Stage programs.

During our time administering these awards, CIRM has actively partnered with our grantees to navigate what is required to bring a therapy from the bench to the bedside.  CIRM operationalizes this by setting milestones that provide clear definitions of success, specific goals the researchers have to meet to advance the project and also by providing resources for a dedicated project manager to help ensure the project can keep the big picture in mind while executing on their scientific progress. 

Throughout all this we partner with the researchers to support them in every possible way. For example, CIRM provides the project teams with Translational Advisory Panels (TAPs, modeled after the CIRM’s Clinical Advisory Panels) which bring in outside subject matter experts as well as patient advocates to help provide additional scientific, regulatory and clinical expertise to guide the development of the program at no additional cost to the grantees.  One of the enduring benefits that we hope to provide to researchers and organizations is a practical mastery of translational drug development so that they may continue to advance new and exciting therapies to all patients.

Through CIRM’s strong and continued support of this difficult stage of development, CIRM has developed an internal practical expertise in advancing projects through Translation.  We employ our experience to guide our awardees so they can avoid common pitfalls in the development of cell and gene therapies. The end goal is simple, helping to accelerate their path to the clinic and fulfilling the mission of CIRM that has been twice given to us by the voters of California, bringing treatments to patients suffering from unmet medical needs.

How a CIRM scholar helped create a life-saving COVID vaccine

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

Dr. Derrick Rossi might be the most famous man whose name you don’t recognize. Dr. Rossi is the co-founder of Moderna. Yes, that Moderna. The COVID-19 vaccine Moderna. The vaccine that in clinical trials proved to be around 95 percent effective against the coronavirus.

Dr. Rossi also has another claim to fame. He is a former CIRM scholar. He did some of his early research, with our support, in the lab of Stanford’s Dr. Irv Weissman.

So how do you go from a lowly post doc doing research in what, at the time, was considered a rather obscure scientific field, to creating a company that has become the focus of the hopes of millions of people around the world?  Well, join us on Wednesday, January 27th at 9am (PST) to find out.

CIRM’s President and CEO, Dr. Maria Millan, will hold a live conversation with Dr. Rossi and we want you to be part of it. You can join us to listen in, and even post questions for Dr. Rossi to answer. Think of the name dropping credentials you’ll get when say to your friends; “Well, I asked Dr. Rossi about that and he told me…..”

Being part of the conversation is as simple as clicking on this link:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Progress in the fight against Sickle Cell Disease

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment
Marissa Cors, sickle cell disease patient advocate

Last November Marissa Cors, a patient advocate in the fight against Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), told the Stem Cellar “A stem cell cure will end generations of guilt, suffering, pain and early death. It will give SCD families relief from the financial, emotional and spiritual burden of caring someone living with SCD. It will give all of us an opportunity to have a normal life. Go to school, go to work, live with confidence.” With each passing month it seems we are getting closer to that day.

CIRM is funding four clinical trials targeting SCD and another project we are supporting has just been given the green light by the Food and Drug Administration to start a clinical trial. Clearly progress is being made.

Yesterday we got a chance to see that progress. We held a Zoom event featuring Marissa Cors and other key figures in the fight against SCD, CIRM Science Officer Dr. Ingrid Caras and Evie Junior. Evie is a pioneer in this struggle, having lived with sickle cell all his life but now hoping to live his life free of the disease. He is five months past a treatment that holds out the hope of eradicating the distorted blood cells that cause such devastation to people with the disease.

You can listen to his story, and hear about the other progress being made. Here’s a recording of the Zoom event.

You can also join Marissa every week on her live event on Facebook, Sickle Cell Experience Live.

Month of CIRM – Our Therapeutics Team Goes Hunting

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we have a guest blog by CIRM Senior Science Officer Lisa Kadyk, outlining how she and her colleagues actively search for the best science to fund.

Lisa Kadyk, Ph.D.

Hi everyone,

This is Lisa Kadyk, a Science Officer from the CIRM Therapeutics team, here to tell you about some of the work our team does to support the CIRM mission of accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.  Our job involves seeking out and recruiting great scientists to apply to CIRM and supporting those we fund.

Therapeutics team members manage both the awards that fund the final preclinical studies required before testing a therapeutic in a clinical trial (CLIN1), and the awards that fund the clinical trials themselves (CLIN2). 

I mentioned above that we actively recruit new applicants for our CLIN1 and CLIN2 awards – which is not an activity that is typical of most funding agencies – so why and how do we do this?  

It all comes down to our mission of accelerating the development of therapies to help patients with unmet medical needs.  It turns out that there are many potential applicants developing cutting edge therapies who don’t know much or anything about CIRM, and the ways we can help them with getting those therapies to the clinic and through clinical trials.    So, to bridge this gap, we Science Officers attend scientific conferences, read the scientific literature and meet regularly with each other to stay abreast of new therapeutic approaches being developed in both academia and industry, with the goal of identifying and reaching out to potential applicants about what CIRM has to offer. 

What are some of the things we tell potential applicants about how partnering with CIRM can help accelerate their programs?   First of all, due to the efforts of a very efficient Review team, CIRM is probably the fastest in the business for the time between application and potential funding.  It can be as short as three months for a CLIN1 or CLIN2 application to be reviewed by the external Grants Working Group and approved by the CIRM Board, whereas the NIH (for example) estimates it takes seven to ten months to fund an application.   Second, we have frequent application deadlines (monthly for CLIN1 and CLIN2), so we are always available when the applicant is ready to apply.  Third, we have other accelerating mechanisms in place to help grantees once they’ve received funding, such as the CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics network of six clinical sites throughout California (more efficient clinical trial processes and patient recruitment) and Clinical Advisory Panels (CAPs) – that provide technical, clinical or regulatory expertise as well as patient advocate guidance to the grantee.  Finally, we Science Officers do our best to help every step of the way, from application through grant closeout.

We now feel confident that our recruitment efforts, combined with CIRM’s more efficient funding pipeline and review processes, are accelerating development of new therapies.  Back in 2016, a new CIRM Strategic Plan included the goal of recruiting 50 successful (i.e., funded) clinical trial applicants within five years.  This goal seemed like quite a stretch, since CIRM had funded fewer than 20 clinical trials in the previous ten years.  Fast-forward to the end of 2020, and CIRM had funded 51 new trials in those five years, for a grand total of 68 trials.    

Now, with the passage of Proposition 14 this past November, we are looking forward to bringing more cell and gene therapeutic candidates into clinical trials.   If you are developing one yourself, feel free to let us know… or don’t be surprised if you hear from us!  

Anticipating the Future of Regenerative Medicine: CIRM’s Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network

/ Yimy Villa / 3 Comments

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we take a deeper dive into CIRM’s Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network.  The following is written by Dr. Geoff Lomax, Senior Officer of CIRM Therapeutics and Strategic Infrastructure.

The year 2014 has been described as the regenerative medicine renaissance: the European Union approved its first stem cell-based therapy and the FDA authorized ViaCyte’s CIRM funded clinical trial for diabetes. A path forward for stem cell treatments had emerged and there was a growing pipeline of products moving towards the clinic. At the time, many in the field came to recognize the need for clinical trial sites with the expertise to manage this growing pipeline. Anticipating this demand, CIRM’s provided funding for a network of medical centers capable of supporting all aspect of regenerative medicine clinical trials. In 2015, the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network was launched to for this purpose.

The Alpha Clinics Network is comprised of leading California medical centers with specific expertise in delivering patient-centered stem cell and gene therapy treatments. UC San Diego, City of Hope, UC Irvine and UC Los Angeles were included in the initial launch, and UC San Francisco and UC Davis entered the network in 2017. Between 2015 and 2020 these sites supported 105 regenerative medicine clinical trials. Twenty-three were CIRM-funded clinical trials and the remaining 82 were sponsored by commercial companies or the Alpha Clinic site. These trials are addressing unmet medical needs for almost every disease where regenerative medicine is showing promise including blindness, blood disorders (e.g. sickle cell disease) cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, neurological diseases among others.

As of spring of 2020 the network had inked over $57 million in contracts with commercial sponsors. High demand for Alpha Clinics reflects the valuable human and technical resources they provide clinical trial sponsors. These resources include:

  • Skilled patient navigators to educate patients and their families about stem cell and gene therapy treatments and assist them through the clinical trial process.
  • Teams and facilities specialized in the manufacturing and/or processing of patients’ treatments. In some instances, multiple Alpha Clinic sites collaborate in manufacturing and delivery of a personalized treatment to the patient.
  • Nurses and clinicians with experience with regenerative medicine and research protocols to effectively deliver treatments and subsequently monitor the patients.

The multi- site collaborations are an example of how the network operates synergistically to accelerate the development of new treatments and clinical trials. For example, the UC San Francisco Alpha Clinic is collaborating with UC Berkeley and the UC Los Angeles Alpha Clinic to develop a CIRM-funded gene therapy for sickle cell disease. Each partner brings a unique expertise to the program that aims to correct a genetic mutilation in the patients’ blood stem cells to effectively cure the disease. Most recently, City of Hope has partnered with UC Irvine and UC San Diego as part of CIRM’s COVID-19 research program to study how certain immune system antibodies might be used as a treatment for respiratory disease in infected patients. In another COVID-19 study, UC Irvine and UC Davis are working with a commercial sponsor to evaluate a treatment for infected adults.

The examples above are a small sample of the variety of collaborations CIRM funding has enabled. As the Alpha Clinics track record grown, sponsors are increasingly coming to California to enable the success of their research programs. Sponsors with trials running across the country have noted a desire to expand their number of Alpha Clinic sties because they consistently perform at the highest level.

Back in 2014, it was hard to imagine over one hundred clinical trials would be served by the CIRM network in just five years. Fortunately, CIRM was able to draw on the knowledge of its internal team, external advisors and the ICOC to anticipate this need and provide California infrastructure to rise to the occasion.

Month of CIRM: Battling COVID-19

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the people of California approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future.

Dr. John Zaia, City of Hope stem cell researcher

The news that effective vaccines have been developed to help fight COVID-19 was a truly bright spot at the end of a very dark year. But it will be months, in some countries years, before we have enough vaccines to protect everyone. That’s why it’s so important to keep pushing for more effective ways to help people who get infected with the virus.

One of those ways is in a clinical study that CIRM is funding with City of Hope’s Dr. John Zaia. Dr. Zaia and his team, in partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Flagstaff, Arizona, are using something called convalescent plasma to try and help people who have contracted the virus. Here’s the website they have created for the study.

Plasma is a part of our blood that carries proteins, called antibodies, that help defend our bodies against viral infections. When a patient recovers from COVID-19, their blood plasma contains antibodies against the virus. The hope is that those antibodies can now be used as a potential treatment for COVID-19 to help people who are newly infected. 

To carry out the study they are using clinical trial sites around California, including some of the CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Network clinics.

For the study to succeed they’ll first need people who have recovered from the virus to donate blood. That’s particularly appropriate in January because this is National Volunteer Blood Donor Month.

The team has three elements to their approach:

  • A rapid-response screening program to screen potential COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors, particularly in underserved communities.
  • A laboratory center that can analyze the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies properties in COVID-19 convalescent plasma.
  • An analysis of the clinical course of the disease in COVID-19 patients to identify whether antibody properties correlate with clinical benefit of COVID-19 convalescent plasma.

There’s reason to believe this approach might work. A study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 can help older adults and prevent them from getting seriously ill with the virus if they get the plasma within a few days of becoming infected.

We are used to thinking of blood donations as being used to help people after surgery or who have been in an accident. In this study the donations serve another purpose, but one that is no less important. The World Health Organization describes blood as “the most precious gift that anyone can give to another person — the gift of life. A decision to donate your blood can save a life, or even several if your blood is separated into its components — red cells, platelets and plasma.”

That plasma could help in developing more effective treatments against the virus. Because until we have enough vaccines for everyone, we are still going to need as much help as we can get in fighting COVID-19. The recent surge in cases throughout the US and Europe are a reminder that this virus is far from under control. We have already lost far too many people. So, if you have recently recovered from the virus, or know someone who has, consider donating blood to this study. It could prove to be a lifesaver.

For more information about the study and how you can be part of it, click here.

Month of CIRM: Reviewing Review

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment
Dr. Gil Sambrano, Vice President Portfolio & Review

All this month we are using our blog and social media to highlight a new chapter in CIRM’s life, thanks to the voters approving Proposition 14. We are looking back at what we have done since we were created in 2004, and also looking forward to the future. Today we take a look at our Review team.

Many people who have to drive every day don’t really think about what’s going on under the hood of their car. As long as the engine works and gets them from A to B, they’re happy. I think the same is true about CIRM’s Review team. Many people don’t really think about all the moving parts that go into reviewing a promising new stem cell therapy.

But that’s a shame, because they are really missing out on watching a truly impressive engine at work.

Just consider the simple fact that since CIRM started about 4,000 companies, groups and individuals have applied to us for funding. Just take a moment to consider that number. Four thousand. Then consider that at no time have there been more than 5 people working in the review team. That’s right. Just 5 people. And more recently there have been substantially fewer. That’s a lot of projects and not a lot of people to review them. So how do they do it? Easy. They’re brilliant.

First, as applications come in they are scrutinized to make sure they meet specific eligibility requirements; do they involve stem cells, is the application complete, is it the right stage of research, is the budget they are proposing appropriate for the work they want to do etc. If they pass that initial appraisal, they then move on to the second round, the Grants Working Group or GWG.

The GWG consists of independent scientific experts from all over the US, all over the world in fact. However, none are from California because we want to ensure there are no possible conflicts of interest. When I say experts, I do mean experts. These are among the top in their field and are highly sought after to do reviews with the National Institutes of Health etc.

Mark Noble, PhD, the Director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute at the University of Rochester, is a long-time member of the GWG. He says it’s a unique group of people:

“It’s a wonderful scientific education because you come to these meetings and someone is putting in a grant on diabetes and someone’s putting in a  grant on repairing the damage to the heart or spinal cord injury or they have a device that will allow you to transplant cells better and there are people  in the room that are able to talk knowledgeably about each of these areas and understand how this plays into medicine and how it might work in terms of actual financial development and how it might work in the corporate sphere and how it fits in to unmet medical needs . I don’t know of any comparable review panels like this that have such a broad remit and bring together such a breadth of expertise which means that every review panel you come to you are getting a scientific education on all these different areas, which is great.”

The GWG reviews the projects for scientific merit: does the proposal seem plausible, does the team proposing it have the experience and expertise to do the work etc. The reviewers put in a lot of work ahead of time, not just reviewing the application, but looking at previous studies to see if the new application has evidence to support what this team hope to do, to compare it to other efforts in the same field. There are disagreements, but also a huge amount of respect for each other.

Once the GWG makes its recommendations on which projects to fund and which ones not to, the applications move to the CIRM Board, which has the final say on all funding decisions. The Board is given detailed summaries of each project, along with the recommendations of the GWG and our own CIRM Review team. But the Board is not told the identity of any of the applicants, those are kept secret to avoid even the appearance of any conflict of interest.

The Board is not required to follow the recommendations of the GWG, though they usually do. But the Board is also able to fund projects that the GWG didn’t place in the top tier of applications. They have done this on several occasions, often when the application targeted a disease or disorder that wasn’t currently part of the agency’s portfolio.

So that’s how Review works. The team, led by Dr. Gil Sambrano, does extraordinary work with little fanfare or fuss. But without them CIRM would be a far less effective agency.

The passage of Proposition 14 means we now have a chance to resume full funding of research, which means our Review team is going to be busier than ever. They have already started making changes to the application requirements. To help let researchers know what those changes are we are holding a Zoom webinar tomorrow, Thursday, at noon PST. If you would like to watch you can find it on our YouTube channel. And if you have questions you would like to ask send them to info@cirm.ca.gov

Stanford scientists are growing brain stem cells in bulk using 3D hydrogels

/ Karen Ring / 1 Comment

This blog is the final installment in our #MonthofCIRM series. Be sure to check out our other blogs highlighting important advances in CIRM-funded research and initiatives.

Neural stem cells from the brain have promising potential as cell-based therapies for treating neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and spinal cord injury. A limiting factor preventing these brain stem cells from reaching the clinic is quantity. Scientists have a difficult time growing large populations of brain stem cells in an efficient, cost-effective manner while also maintaining the cells in a stem cell state (a condition referred to as “stemness”).

CIRM-funded scientists from Stanford University are working on a solution to this problem. Dr. Sarah Heilshorn, an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford, and her team are engineering 3D hydrogel technologies to make it easier and cheaper to expand high-quality neural stem cells (NSCs) for clinical applications. Their research was published yesterday in the journal Nature Materials.

Stem Cells in 3D

Similar to how moviegoers prefer to watch the latest Star Wars installment in 3D, compared to the regular screen, scientists are turning to 3D materials called hydrogels to grow large numbers of stem cells. Such an environment offers more space for the stem cells to proliferate and expand their numbers while keeping them happy in their stem cell state.

To find the ideal conditions to grow NSCs in 3D, Heilshorn’s team tested two important properties of hydrogels: stiffness and degradability (or how easy it is to remodel the structure of the hydrogel material). They designed a range of hydrogels, made from proteins with elastic qualities, that varied in these two properties. Interestingly, they found that the stiffness of the material did not have a profound effect on the “stemness” of NSCs. This result contrasts with other types of adult stem cells like muscle stem cells, which quickly differentiate into mature muscle cells when exposed to stiffer materials.

On the other hand, the researchers found that it was crucial for the NSCs to be able to remodel their 3D environment. NSCs maintained their stemness by secreting enzymes that broke down and rearranged the molecules in the hydrogels. If this enzymatic activity was blocked, or if the cells were grown in hydrogels that couldn’t be remodeled easily, NSCs lost their stemness and stopped proliferating. The team tested two other hydrogel materials and found the same results. As long as the NSCs were in a 3D environment they could remodel, they were able to maintain their stemness.

NSCs maintain their stemness in hydrogels that can be remodeled easily. Nestin (green) and Sox2 (red) are markers that indicate “high-quality” NSCs. (Image courtesy of Chris Madl, Stanford)

Caption: NSCs maintain their stemness in hydrogels that can be remodeled easily. Nestin (green) and Sox2 (red) are markers that indicate “high-quality” NSCs. (Images courtesy of Chris Madl)

Christopher Madl, a PhD student in the Heilshorn lab and the first author on the study, explained how remodeling their 3D environment allows NSCs to grow robustly in an interview with the Stem Cellar:

Chris Madl

“In this study, we identified that the ability of the neural stem cells to dynamically remodel the material was critical to maintaining the correct stem cell state. Being able to remodel (or rearrange) the material permitted the cells to contact each other.  This cell-cell contact is responsible for maintaining signals that allow the stem cells to stay in a stem-like state. Our findings allow expansion of neural stem cells from relatively low-density cultures (aiding scale-up) without the use of expensive chemicals that would otherwise be required to maintain the correct stem cell behavior (potentially decreasing cost).”

To 3D and Beyond

When asked what’s next on the research horizon, Heilshorn said two things:

Sarah Heilshorn

“First, we want to see if other stem cell types – for example, pluripotent stem cells – are also sensitive to the “remodel-ability” of materials. Second, we plan to use our discovery to create a low-cost, reproducible material for efficient expansion of stem cells for clinical applications. In particular, we’d like to explore the use of a single material platform that is injectable, so that the same material could be used to expand the stem cells and then transplant them.”

Heilshorn is planning to apply the latter idea to advance another study that her team is currently working on. The research, which is funded by a CIRM Tools and Technologies grant, aims to develop injectable hydrogels containing NSCs derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells to treat mice, and hopefully one day humans, with spinal cord injury. Heilshorn explained,

“In our CIRM-funded studies, we learned a lot about how neural stem cells interact with materials. This lead us to realize that there’s another critical bottleneck that occurs even before the stage of transplantation: being able to generate a large enough number of high-quality stem cells for transplantation. We are developing materials to improve the transplantation of stem cell-derived therapies to patients with spinal cord injuries. Unfortunately, during the transplantation process, a lot of cells can get damaged. We are now creating injectable materials that prevent this cell damage during transplantation and improve the survival and engraftment of NSCs.”

An injectable material that promotes the expansion of large populations of clinical grade stem cells that can also differentiate into mature cells is highly desired by scientists pursuing the development of cell replacement therapies. Heilshorn and her team at Stanford have made significant progress on this front and are hoping that in time, this technology will prove effective enough to reach the clinic.

CIRM stories that caught our eye: UCSD team stops neuromuscular disease in mice, ALS trial enrolls 1st patients and Q&A with CIRM Prez

/ Todd Dubnicoff / Leave a comment

Ordinarily, we end each week at the Stem Cellar with a few stem cell stories that caught our eye. But, for the past couple of weeks we’ve been busy churning out stories related to our Month of CIRM blog series, which we hope you’ve found enlightening. To round out the series, we present this “caught our eye” blog of CIRM-specific stories from the last half of October.

Stopping neurodegenerative disorder with blood stem cells. (Karen Ring)

CIRM-funded scientists at the UC San Diego School of Medicine may have found a way to treat a progressive neuromuscular disorder called Fredreich’s ataxia (FA). Their research was published last week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

FA is a genetic disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord leading to the loss of sensory nerve cells that control muscle movement. Early on, patients with FA experience muscle weakness and loss of coordination. As the disease progresses, FA can cause scoliosis (curved spine), heart disease and diabetes. 1 in 50,000 Americans are afflicted with FA, and there is currently no effective treatment or cure for this disease.

cherqui

In this reconstituted schematic, blood stem cells transplanted in a mouse model of Friedreich’s ataxia differentiate into microglial cells (red) and transfer mitochondrial protein (green) to neurons (blue), preventing neurodegeneration. Image courtesy of Stephanie Cherqui, UC San Diego School of Medicine.

UCSD scientists, led by CIRM grantee Dr. Stephanie Cherqui, found in a previous study that transplanting blood stem and progenitor cells was an effective treatment for preventing another genetic disease called cystinosis in mice. Cherqui’s cystinosis research is currently being funded by a CIRM late stage preclinical grant.

In this new study, the UCSD team was curious to find out whether a similar stem cell approach could also be an effective treatment for FA. The researchers used an FA transgenic mouse model that was engineered to harbor two different human mutations in a gene called FXN, which produces a mitochondrial protein called frataxin. Mutations in FXN result in reduced expression of frataxin, which eventually leads to the symptoms experienced by FA patients.

When they transplanted healthy blood stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) from normal mice into FA mice, the cells developed into immune cells called microglia and macrophages. They found the microglia in the brain and spinal cord and the macrophages in the spinal cord, heart and muscle tissue of FA mice that received the transplant. These normal immune cells produced healthy frataxin protein, which was transferred to disease-affected nerve and muscle cells in FA mice.

Cherqui explained their study’s findings in a UC San Diego Health news release:

“Transplantation of wildtype mouse HSPCs essentially rescued FA-impacted cells. Frataxin expression was restored. Mitochondrial function in the brains of the transgenic mice normalized, as did in the heart. There was also decreased skeletal muscle atrophy.”

In the news release, Cherqui’s team acknowledged that the FA mouse model they used does not perfectly mimic disease progression in humans. In future studies, the team will test their method on other mouse models of FA to ultimately determine whether blood stem cell transplants will be an effective treatment option for FA patients.

Brainstorm’s CIRM funded clinical trial for ALS enrolls its first patients
“We have been conducting ALS clinical trials for more than two decades at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and this is, by far, the most exciting trial in which we have been involved to date.”

Those encouraging words were spoken by Dr. Robert Miller, director of CPMC’s Forbes Norris ALS Research Center in an October 16th news release posted by Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics. The company announced in the release that they had enrolled the first patients in their CIRM-funded, stem cell-based clinical trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

BrainStorm

Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a cruel, devastating disease that gradually destroys motor neurons, the cells in the brain or spinal cord that instruct muscles to move. People with the disease lose the ability to move their muscles and, over time, the muscles atrophy leading to paralysis. Most people with ALS die within 3 to 5 years from the onset of symptoms and there is no effective therapy for the disease.

Brainstorm’s therapy product, called NurOwn®, is made from mesenchymal stem cells that are taken from the patient’s own bone marrow. These stem cells are then modified to boost their production and release of factors, which are known to help support and protect the motor neurons destroyed by the disease. Because the cells are derived directly from the patient, no immunosuppressive drugs are necessary, which avoids potentially dangerous side effects. The trial aims to enroll 200 patients and is a follow up of a very promising phase 2 trial. CIRM’s $16 million grant to the Israeli company which also has headquarters in the United States will support clinical studies at multiple centers in California. And Abla Creasey, CIRM’s Senior Director of Strategic Infrastructure points out in the press release, the Agency support of this trial goes beyond this single grant:

“Brainstorm will conduct this trial at multiple sites in California, including our Alpha Clinics Network and will also manufacture its product in California using CIRM-funded infrastructure.”

An initial analysis of the effectiveness of NurOwn® in this phase 3 trial is expected in 2019.

CIRM President Maria Millan reflects on her career, CIRM’s successes and the outlook for stem cell biology 

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Maria T. Millan, M.D., CIRM President and CEO

RegMedNet a networking website that provides content related to the regenerative medicine community, published an interview this morning with Maria Millan, M.D., CIRM’s new President and CEO. The interview covers the impressive accomplishments that Dr. Millan had achieved before coming to CIRM, with details that even some of us CIRM team members may not have been aware of. In addition to describing her pre-CIRM career, Dr. Millan also describes the Agency’s successes during her term as Vice President of CIRM’s Therapeutics group and she gives her take on future of Agency and the stem cell biology field in general over the next five years and beyond. File this article under “must read”.