COVID‑19 targets many parts of the body, often with serious or life‑threatening effects. This past Friday, the CIRM Board approved investments in three early‑stage research projects that take new approaches to treating the virus.

City of Hope

Dr. Jianhua Yu at the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope received $150,000 to use umbilical cord blood stem cells to attack COVID‑19. His team has extensive experience turning cord blood cells into chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cells. The goal is to engineer these CAR NK cells to seek out and destroy COVID‑19‑infected cells. This work builds on technology City of Hope has developed for cancer.

Stanford University

Dr. Helen Blau of Stanford University received $149,996 to help COVID‑19 patients recovering from long periods on ventilators. Severe COVID‑19 often causes respiratory failure that requires mechanical ventilation. Over time, the diaphragm—the main breathing muscle—weakens and atrophies. There is currently no treatment for this kind of muscle wasting, and many patients may take months or years to recover. Dr. Blau’s team plans to test a therapy using Prostaglandin E2 and Bupivacaine. Both drugs are FDA‑approved for other uses, and her lab’s data suggest they may stimulate muscle stem cell recovery.

CIRM’s committent

Dr. Albert Wong, also at Stanford, received $149,999 to develop new COVID‑19 vaccine candidates. Most vaccines aim to produce antibodies that block the virus. However, Dr. Wong believes a strong CD8+ T cell response is also essential. T cells help remove infected cells that the virus hijacks to spread illness. His team will use experience gained from a CIRM‑funded vaccine program for glioblastoma, applying similar strategies to design a strong cellular immune response against COVID‑19.

“CIRM is committed to supporting novel, multi‑pronged approaches to battle this COVID‑19 crisis that leverage solid science and knowledge gained in other areas,” said Dr. Maria T. Millan, CIRM’s President and CEO. “These three projects highlight different strategies to confront both the acute and long‑term effects of COVID‑19. Through this funding opportunity, CIRM is helping researchers redirect existing expertise—often built with CIRM support—to rapidly develop new approaches for COVID‑19.”ed on data generated by Dr. Blau’s group that these drugs, already approved by the FDA for other indications, have the potential to stimulate muscle stem cells recovery.

Dr. Albert Wong, also from Stanford University, was awarded $149,999 to develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19.