Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Symposium

Exploring tough questions, looking for answers

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

COVID-19 and social and racial injustice are two of the biggest challenges facing the US right now. This Thursday, October 8th, we are holding a conversation that explores finding answers to both.

The CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network Symposium is going to feature presentations about advances in stem cell and regenerative research, highlighting treatments that are already in the clinic and being offered to patients.

But we’re also going to dive a little deeper into the work we support, and use it to discuss two of the most pressing issues of the day.

One of the topics being featured is research into COVID-19. To date CIRM has funded 17 different projects, including three clinical trials. We’ll talk about how these are trying to find ways to help people infected with the virus, seeing if stem cells can help restore function to organs and tissues damaged by the virus, and if we can use stem cells to help develop safe and effective vaccines.

Immediately after that we are going to use COVID-19 as a way of exploring how the people most at risk of being infected and suffering serious consequences, are also the ones most likely to be left out of the research and have most trouble accessing treatments and vaccines.

Study after study highlights how racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in clinical trials and disproportionately affected by debilitating diseases. We have a responsibility to change that, to ensure that the underserved are given the same opportunity to take part in clinical trials as other communities.

How do we do that, how do we change a system that has resisted change for so long, how do we overcome the mistrust that has built up in underserved communities following decades of abuse? We’ll be talking about with experts who are on the front lines of this movement.

It promises to be a lively meeting. We’d love to see you there. It’s virtual – of course – it’s open to everyone, and it’s free.

Here’s where you can register and find out more about the Symposium

Charting a new course for stem cell research

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

What are the latest advances in stem cell research targeting cancer? Can stem cells help people battling COVID-19 or even help develop a vaccine to stop the virus? What are researchers and the scientific community doing to help address the unmet medical needs of underserved communities? Those are just a few of the topics being discussed at the Annual CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network Symposium on Thursday, October 8th from 9am to 1.30pm PDT.

Like pretty nearly everything these days the symposium is going to be a virtual event, so you can watch it from the comfort of your own home on a phone or laptop. And it’s free.

The CIRM Alpha Clinics are a network of leading medical centers here in California. They specialize in delivering stem cell and gene therapies to patients. So, while many conferences look at the promise of stem cell therapies, here we deal with the reality; what’s in the clinic, what’s working, what do we need to do to help get these therapies to patients in need?

It’s a relatively short meeting, with short presentations, but that doesn’t mean it will be short on content. Some of the best stem cell researchers in the U.S. are taking part so you’ll learn an awful lot in a short time.

We’ll hear what’s being done to find therapies for

  • Rare diseases that affect children
  • Type 1 diabetes
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Glioblastoma
  • Multiple myeloma

We’ll discuss how to create a patient navigation system that can address social and economic determinants that impact patient participation? And we’ll look at ways that the Alpha Clinic Network can partner with community care givers around California to increase patient access to the latest therapies.

It’s going to be a fascinating day. And did I mention it’s free!

All you have to do is go to this Eventbrite page to register.

And feel free to share this with your family, friends or anyone you think might be interested.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Mending Stem Cells: The Past, Present and Future of Regenerative Medicine

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments

To Mend: (verb used with object) to make (something broken, worn, torn or otherwise damaged) whole, sound or usable by repairing.

It’s remarkable to believe, but today doctors literally have the tools to repair damaged cells. These tools are being used to treat people with diseases that were once incurable. The field of regenerative medicine has made tremendous progress in the last 15 years, but how did these tools come about and what is the experience of patients being treated with them?

These questions, and hopefully yours too, are going to be answered at the fourth annual CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Symposium on April 18, 2019 at the University of California at San Francisco.

UCSF Mission Bay Campus

The symposium is free, and the program is designed with patients and the public in mind, so don’t be shy and put your scientific thinking caps on! A complete agenda may be found here

Perhaps one of the most remarkable discoveries in the past decade are new tools that enable doctors to “edit” or correct a patient’s own DNA. DNA correction tools came about because of a remarkable string of scientific breakthroughs. The symposium will dive into this history and discuss  how these tools are being used today to treat patients.

One specific example of the promise that DNA editing holds is for those with sickle cell disease (SCD), a condition where patients’ blood forming stem cells contain a genetic error that causes the disease. The symposium will describe how the CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network, a series of medical centers across California whose focus is on stem cell clinical trials, are supporting work aimed at mending blood cells to cure debilitating diseases like SCD.

Doctors, nurses and patients involved with these trials will be telling their stories and describing their experiences. One important focus will be how Alpha Clinic teams are partnering with community members to ensure that patients, interested in new treatments, are informed about the availability of clinical trials and receive sufficient information to make the best treatment choices.

The fourth annual CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Symposium is an opportunity for patients, their families and the public to meet the pioneers who are literally mending a patients own stem cells to cure their disease.

For registration information go here.