Biotechnology

Get your BIO on: Sneak Peak of the June 2016 BIO Convention in SF

/ Karen Ring / Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 8.43.36 AM

Summer is almost here and for scientists around the world, that means it’s time to flock to one of the world’s biggest biotech meetings, the BIO International Convention.

This year, BIO is hosted in the lovely city of San Francisco. From June 6-9th, over 15,000 biotechnology and pharma leaders, as well as other professionals, academics, and patients will congregate to learn, educate, and network.

There’s something for everyone at this convention. If you check out the BIO agenda, you’ll find a plethora of talks, events, education sessions, and fire side chats on almost any topic related to science and biotechnology that you can imagine. The hard part will be deciding what to attend in only four short days.

For those going to BIO this year, make sure to check out the myBIO event planning tool that’s free for attendees and allows you to browse events and create a personalized agenda. You can also set up a professional profile that will share your background and networking interests with others at BIO. With this nifty tool, you can search for scientists, companies, and speakers you might want to connect with during the convention. Think of all the potential networking opportunities right at your fingertips!

Will Smith (source)

Will Smith (source)

For those who can’t make it to BIO, don’t worry, we have you covered. CIRM will be at the convention blogging and live tweeting. Because our mission is to bring stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs, the majority of our coverage will be on talks and sessions related to regenerative medicine and patient advocacy. However, there are definitely some sessions outside these areas that we won’t want to miss such as the Tuesday Keynote talk by Dr. Bennet Omalu – who helped reveal the extent of brain damage in the NFL – and actor Will Smith – who plays Dr. Omalu in the movie ‘Concussion’. Their join talk is called “Knowledge Precipitates Evolution.”

Here’s a sneak peak of some of the other talks and events that we think will be especially interesting:

Monday June 6th

Education Sessions on Brain Health and Mitochondrial Disease

Moving Out of Stealth Mode: Biotech Journalists Offer Real-World Advice on Working with Media to Tell Your Story

“In this interactive panel discussion, well-known biotech reporters from print and online outlets will share their insights on how to successfully work with the media. Session attendees will learn critical needs of the media from what makes a story newsworthy to how to “pitch” a reporter to strategies for translating complicated science into a story for a broad audience.”

The Bioethics of Drug Development: You Decide

“A discussion of the critical bioethical issues innovative manufacturers face in today’s healthcare ecosystem. Panelists will provide insights from a diverse set of perspectives, including investors, the patient advocacy community, bioethicists and federal regulators.”

Tuesday June 7th

Fireside Chat with Robert Califf, Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Fireside Chat with Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California

Casting a Wider Net in Alzheimer’s Research: The Diversity of Today’s Approaches and Signs of Progress

“Hear clinical researchers, biotech CEOs, and patient advocates explain how the field is pivoting from the failures of past approaches to make use of the latest generation of beta-amyloid research results as well as pursue alternative therapeutic angles to improve brain health.”

From Ebola to Zika: How Can We Go Faster in a Global Emergency?

“This interactive panel of public health and industry leaders will discuss what has been learned through our global response to Ebola and what is and is not applicable to Zika or other pathogens of pandemic potential.”

Wednesday June 8th

Curative Therapies: Aligning Policy with Science to Ensure Patient Access

“The promise of curative treatments creates an urgent need to ensure access for patients, promote an environment conducive to developing new treatments, and manage the concentration of healthcare expenses in a sustainable manner.  A diverse set of panelists will tackle the tough questions around curative therapies and discern what changes are necessary for our health care delivery system to meet the challenges they pose.”

An Evolving Paradigm: Advancing the Science of Patient Input in the Drug Development and Regulatory Processes

“This panel will explore advances in the field of assessing patient views and perspectives, and highlight how the patient voice is being incorporated into development programs and informing FDA review and approval decisions.”

A Media Perspective

“Any press is good press or so they say. You want your story known at the right time and in the right light, but how do you get industry journalist to notice you? What peaks their interest and how do they go about story discovery? What will they be looking to write about in the next 3 to 12 months? Three top journalists will discuss their approaches to keeping current and what makes a story newsworthy.”
Patient Advocacy Meetup

Over 40 patient advocacy organizations will be discussing their latest partnerships and developments in the areas of advancing disease research and drug development.

Thursday June 9th

Novel Advances in Cancer R&D: Meeting the Needs of the Patient

“This panel will feature the views of patients and advocates, regulators, and companies who are working to change the way in which we diagnose and evaluate patients with cancer by better understanding the underlying biology of their disease.”

 To follow our coverage of BIO, visit our Stem Cellar Blog or follow us on Twitter at @CIRMNews.

CRISPR cluster: How the media spotlight is focusing on gene editing tool

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment
Illustration by Ashley Mackenzie: from New York Times Sunday Magazine

Illustration by Ashley Mackenzie: from New York Times Sunday Magazine

Getting in-depth stories about science in general, and regenerative medicine in particular, into the mainstream media is becoming increasingly hard these days. So when you get one major media outlet doing a really long, thoughtful piece about a potential game-changing gene-editing technology it’s good news. But when you get three major media outlets, all reporting on the same technology, all in the space of less than one week, and all devoting lots of words to the pieces, then it’s really a cause for celebration.

That’s what happened in the last few days with features on the gene editing technology CRISPR in the New York Times Sunday Magazine,  the New Yorker Magazine,  and STAT, a new online health and life-sciences publication produced by the Boston Globe.

Making the story personal

Feng Zhang: photo courtesy of the Broad Institute

Feng Zhang: photo courtesy of the Broad Institute

Each takes a similar approach, focusing on the individuals behind the new approach – Feng Zhang at Harvard/MIT and Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley. The fact that the two are involved in a fight over patent rights for the process adds an extra element of friction to a story that already has more than its share of drama.

In the New Yorker, Michael Specter neatly summarizes why so many people are excited about this technology:

“With CRISPR, scientists can change, delete, and replace genes in any animal, including us. Working mostly with mice, researchers have already deployed the tool to correct the genetic errors responsible for sickle-cell anemia, muscular dystrophy, and the fundamental defect associated with cystic fibrosis. One group has replaced a mutation that causes cataracts; another has destroyed receptors that H.I.V. uses to infiltrate our immune system.”

Jennifer Doudna: Photo courtesy of iPSCell.com

Jennifer Doudna: Photo courtesy of iPSCell.com

Sharon Begley in STAT, writes that this discovery could bring cures to some of the deadliest health problems we face, from cancer to Alzheimer’s, but that it also comes with big ethical questions hanging over it:

“He (Zhang) has touched off a global furor over the possibility that a genetics tool he developed could usher in a dystopian age of designer babies.”

Jennifer Kahn in the New York Times Sunday Magazine follows up on that thought, writing about Doudna:

“But she also notes that the prospect of editing embryos so that they don’t carry disease-causing genes goes to the heart of CRISPR’s potential. She has received email from young women with the BRCA breast-cancer mutation, asking whether CRISPR could keep them from passing that mutation on to their children — not by selecting embryos in vitro, but by removing the mutation from the child’s genetic code altogether. ‘‘So at some point, you have to ask: What if we could rid a person’s germ line, and all their future generations, of that risk?’’ Doudna observed. ‘‘When does one risk outweigh another?’’

Each article makes for fascinating reading. Collectively they highlight why CRISPR is such a hot topic, on so many different levels, in science right now.

The topic is going to be the focus of a conference, featuring scientists from the US, Europe and China, being held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC the first week of December.

CIRM is also getting involved in the debate and is holding a science-policy workshop on February 4th, 2016 in Los Angeles to consider the future use of genome editing technologies in studies sponsored by CIRM.

New tech tool speeds up stem cell research

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

It’s hard to do a good job if you don’t have the right tools. Now researchers have access to a great new tool that could really help them accelerate their work, a tool its developers say “will revolutionize the way cell biologists develop” stem cell models to test in the lab.

Fluidigm's Castillo system

Fluidigm’s Callisto system

The device is called Callisto™. It was created by Fluidigm thanks to two grants from CIRM. The goal was to develop a device that would allow researchers more control and precision in the ways that they could turn stem cells into different kinds of cell. This is often a long, labor-intensive process requiring round-the-clock maintenance of the cells to get them to make the desired transformation.

Callisto changes that. The device has 32 chambers, giving researchers more control over the conditions that cells are stored in, even allowing them to create different environmental conditions for different groups of cells. All with much less human intervention.

Lila Collins, Ph.D., the CIRM Science Officer who has worked closely with Fluidigm on this project over the years, says this system has some big advantages over the past:

“Creating the optimal conditions for reprogramming, stem cell culture and stem cells has historically been a tedious and manually laborious task. This system allows a user to more efficiently test a variety of cellular stimuli at various times without having to stay tied to the bench. Once the chip is set up in the instrument, the user can go off and do other things.”

Having a machine that is faster and easier to use is not the only advantage Callisto offers, it also gives researchers the ability to systematically and simultaneously test different combinations of factors, to see which ones are most effective at changing stem cells into different kinds of cell. And once they know which combinations work best they can use Callisto to reproduce them time after time. That consistency means researchers in different parts of the world can create cells under exactly the same conditions, so that results from one study will more readily support and reflect results from another.

In a news release about Callisto,  Fluidigm’s President and CEO Gajus Worthington, says this could be tremendously useful in developing new therapies:

“Fluidigm aims to enable important research that would otherwise be impractical. The Callisto system incorporates some of our finest microfluidic technology to date, and will allow researchers to quickly and easily create complex cell culture environments. This in turn can help reveal how stems cells make fate decisions. Callisto makes challenging applications, such as cellular reprogramming and analysis, more accessible to a wide range of scientists. We believe this will move biological discovery forward significantly.”

And as Collins points out, Callisto doesn’t just do this on a bulk level, working with millions of cells at a time, the way the current methods do:

“Using a bulk method it’s possible that one might miss an important event in the mixture. The technology in this system allows the user to stimulate and study individual cells. In this way, one could measure changes in small sub-populations and find ways to increase or decrease them.”

Having the right tools doesn’t always mean you are going to succeed, but it certainly makes it a lot easier.

BIO International Panel Showed Stem Cell Science Poised to Make a Difference in Medical Practice Soon

/ cirmweb / Leave a comment

When the biotechnology trade association began holding annual conferences in 1993, they drew 1,400 to the first event. This year BIO International expected nearly 20,000 here in San Diego. Among the dozens of concurrent sessions each day of this four-day scramble, stem cells got one track on one day this year. But listening to the progress being made by our presenters yesterday, our field is set to grow at the pace this meeting has—and could dominate the medical sessions here within the next decade.

995548_10151801308142804_405229409_n

After setting the scene with our opening panel yesterday, four subsequent panels confirmed the vast near-term potential painted by the opening speakers. They revealed a field maturing rapidly and starting to be a valued research tool of the bigger companies that have dominated the biotech industry, at the same time it is starting to deliver therapies to patients.

The second panel displayed the robust power of stem cells to model disease better than animal models ever could. These cells also let researchers dive much deeper into the genetic causes of disease, particularly diseases with multiple genes involved. Anne Bang from the Sanford-Burnham Institute mentioned her role in a consortium organized by the National Institutes of Health that is looking at the many genes involved in a type of heart weakening called left ventricular hypertrophy. Because different ethnicities tend to respond differently to drugs used for the condition, the consortium teams are creating iPS-type stem cell lines from 125 Caucasian patients and 125 African-American patients with various forms of the condition.

Their goal is to personalize and improve therapy across both patients groups. The way cells behave in the lab can tell the researchers much more relevant information than most animal models, so drugs developed based off their discoveries should have a better chance of success. All four panelists agreed that the field needs enough drugs developed with these tools to show that they do indeed have a better success rate. That track record should start to develop over the next few years.

The third panel talked about the shift in the medical mindset that will happen when genetically modified stem cells can change the care of chronic diseases from daily therapy to cures. Louis Bretton of Calimmune discussed how his company is trying to do this for HIV, which we blogged about yesterday when they announced promising first phase results from their first four patients. Faraz Ali of bluebird bio showed that his company has already made this life-changing shift for two patients with the blood disorder Beta Thalassemia. Like most patients with the disease they had been dependent on regular transfusions to survive, but when they received transplants of their own stem cells genetically modified to produce the correct version of a protein that is defective in the disease, they were able to live without transfusions.

The fourth panel provided proof that the field is maturing in that they discussed the many hurdles and pitfalls in taking those final steps to prepare a cell therapy to be a commercial product. The three big hurdles—financing, regulatory approval and reimbursement by insurers—all required creativity by the companies outlined in the two case studies. They are working through them but it is anything but a straightforward path. This is the area I hear the most hand wringing about in the halls of meetings in our field.

The last panel showed that one way around some of those end stage hurdles is to reach across borders. Four panelists discussed specific examples of ways international collaborations have accelerated their work toward developing therapies. CIRM has more than 20 collaborative agreements with funding agencies around the world, many of them painstakingly nurtured by our former president Alan Trounson. He gave the final presentation of the panel talking about one of his new projects, building an international stem cell bank with enough cell lines that almost everyone could get donor cells that were immunologically matched.

Our board chair, Jonathan Thomas, moderated the last panel and ended with a tribute to Alan noting that his build-out of our international program would be one of his many lasting legacies.
Don Gibbons

BIO International Panel Showed Stem Cell Science Poised to Make a Difference in Medical Practice Soon

/ cirmweb / Leave a comment

When the biotechnology trade association began holding annual conferences in 1993, they drew 1,400 to the first event. This year BIO International expected nearly 20,000 here in San Diego. Among the dozens of concurrent sessions each day of this four-day scramble, stem cells got one track on one day this year. But listening to the progress being made by our presenters yesterday, our field is set to grow at the pace this meeting has—and could dominate the medical sessions here within the next decade.

995548_10151801308142804_405229409_n

After setting the scene with our opening panel yesterday, four subsequent panels confirmed the vast near-term potential painted by the opening speakers. They revealed a field maturing rapidly and starting to be a valued research tool of the bigger companies that have dominated the biotech industry, at the same time it is starting to deliver therapies to patients.

The second panel displayed the robust power of stem cells to model disease better than animal models ever could. These cells also let researchers dive much deeper into the genetic causes of disease, particularly diseases with multiple genes involved. Anne Bang from the Sanford-Burnham Institute mentioned her role in a consortium organized by the National Institutes of Health that is looking at the many genes involved in a type of heart weakening called left ventricular hypertrophy. Because different ethnicities tend to respond differently to drugs used for the condition, the consortium teams are creating iPS-type stem cell lines from 125 Caucasian patients and 125 African-American patients with various forms of the condition.

Their goal is to personalize and improve therapy across both patients groups. The way cells behave in the lab can tell the researchers much more relevant information than most animal models, so drugs developed based off their discoveries should have a better chance of success. All four panelists agreed that the field needs enough drugs developed with these tools to show that they do indeed have a better success rate. That track record should start to develop over the next few years.

The third panel talked about the shift in the medical mindset that will happen when genetically modified stem cells can change the care of chronic diseases from daily therapy to cures. Louis Bretton of Calimmune discussed how his company is trying to do this for HIV, which we blogged about yesterday when they announced promising first phase results from their first four patients. Faraz Ali of bluebird bio showed that his company has already made this life-changing shift for two patients with the blood disorder Beta Thalassemia. Like most patients with the disease they had been dependent on regular transfusions to survive, but when they received transplants of their own stem cells genetically modified to produce the correct version of a protein that is defective in the disease, they were able to live without transfusions.

The fourth panel provided proof that the field is maturing in that they discussed the many hurdles and pitfalls in taking those final steps to prepare a cell therapy to be a commercial product. The three big hurdles—financing, regulatory approval and reimbursement by insurers—all required creativity by the companies outlined in the two case studies. They are working through them but it is anything but a straightforward path. This is the area I hear the most hand wringing about in the halls of meetings in our field.

The last panel showed that one way around some of those end stage hurdles is to reach across borders. Four panelists discussed specific examples of ways international collaborations have accelerated their work toward developing therapies. CIRM has more than 20 collaborative agreements with funding agencies around the world, many of them painstakingly nurtured by our former president Alan Trounson. He gave the final presentation of the panel talking about one of his new projects, building an international stem cell bank with enough cell lines that almost everyone could get donor cells that were immunologically matched.

Our board chair, Jonathan Thomas, moderated the last panel and ended with a tribute to Alan noting that his build-out of our international program would be one of his many lasting legacies.
Don Gibbons