Patient Advocates play an important role in everything we do at the stem cell agency, helping inform all the decisions we make. So it was gratifying to hear from one of our Advocates par excellence, Adrienne Shapiro, about her support for our Board’s decision to borrow $4.2 million from our Sickle Cell Cure fund to invest in rapid COVID-19 research. The money will be repaid, but Adrienne’s email makes it clear she believes the Board’s action will benefit all of us.

Sickle Cell Cures

Last Friday, the CIRM Board voted to borrow $4.2 million from the Sickle Cell Cure budget to support COVID‑19 research. The loan will be repaid at year’s end using funds returned from unused projects. At first I thought, “That makes sense,” and then I realized how valuable it was to have that SCD budget available for COVID‑19 work.

This is important because COVID‑19 poses a serious threat to the SCD community. Many patients lack spleens, are immunocompromised, and have lung damage caused by sickling cells and low oxygen levels.

It is also important because CIRM funded the first major stem cell clinical trials for an SCD cure. That support helped open the door to a surge of research into new treatments.

And it matters because CIRM can show how a government agency can tackle complex health problems with efficient, inclusive, and agile methods.

I look forward to the results. We all hope new treatments — or even a cure — emerge soon. If these funds do not produce a breakthrough, they will still advance future research and help patients.

The SCD community shows that good science reduces suffering.