Bubble baby treatment cleared to restart clinical trial

December 5, 2022December 7, 2022 / Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

Evie Vaccaro: Photo courtesy Nancy Ramos

Three families battling a life-threatening immune disorder got some great news last week. A clinical trial that could save the life of their child has once again been given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The clinical trial is the work of UCLA’s Dr. Don Kohn, and was strongly supported by CIRM. It is targeting ADA-SCID, a condition where the child is born without a functioning immune system so even a simple infection could prove fatal. In the past they were called “bubble babies” because some had been placed inside sterile plastic bubbles to protect them from germs.

Dr. Kohn’s approach – using the patient’s own blood stem cells, modified in the lab to correct the genetic mutation that causes the problem – had shown itself to be amazingly effective. In a study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers showed that of 50 patients treated all had done well and 97 percent were considered cured.

UCLA licensed the therapy to Orchard Therapeutics, who planned to complete the testing needed to apply for permission to make it more widely available. But Orchard ran into problems and shelved the therapy.

After lengthy negotiations Orchard returned the therapy to UCLA last year and now the FDA has given clearance for UCLA to resume treating patients. That is expected to start early next year using CIRM funds left over when Orchard halted its work.

One of the people who played a big role in helping persuade Orchard to return the therapy to UCLA is Alysia Vaccaro. She is the mother of Evie, a child born with ADA-SCID who was cured by Dr. Kohn and his team and is now a thriving 9 year old.

You can watch an interview we did with Alysia about the impact this research has had on her family, and how important it is for other families with ADA-SCID kids.

A look back at 15 years of CIRM funding at UCLA

October 29, 2020 / Yimy Villa / 1 Comment

Researchers in the lab of CIRM grantee Donald Kohn, M.D.
Image Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center

Since the first grant was issued in April 2006, CIRM has funded a wide range of research conducted by top scientists at UCLA for a wide range of diseases. To give a retrospective look at all the research, UCLA released a news article that describes all this work up until this past September. During this period, UCLA researchers were awarded 120 grants totaling more than $307 million. We’ll highlight some of these findings from the article below.

51 Basic Biology CIRM Grants

Basic biology research encompasses very early stage work that focuses on the very essentials such as how stem cells work, how to successfully turn a stem cell into another type of cell, and other basic mechanisms that underly the stem cell research field. This research is critical because they inform future therapies for dozens of conditions including heart disease, genetic and blood disorders, cancer, spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders.

3 Consecutive Year-Long CIRM Training Grants

These CIRM grants are essential in training the next generation of scientists and physicians in the regenerative medicine field. The CIRM training grants supported 146 graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and clinical fellows working in UCLA laboratories by providing them year-long training fellowships. This program was so successful that the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center funded 26 additional fellowships to supplement CIRM’s support.

5 COVID-19 Related Grants

Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic, CIRM authorized $5 million in emergency funding to fund COVID-19 related projects. UCLA has received a $1.02 million to support four discovery research projects and one translational project. Discovery research promotes promising new technologies that could be translated to enable broad use and improve patient care. Translational research takes it a step further by promoting the activities necessary for advancement to clinical study of a potential therapy.

1 Alpha Stem Cell Clinic (ASCC) Grant

One award was used to establish the UCLA‐UCI Alpha Stem Cell Clinic. It is one of five leading medical centers throughout California that make up the CIRM ASSC Network, which specializes in the delivery of stem cell therapies by providing world-class, state of the art infrastructure to support clinical research.

8 Clinical Trials

Out of the 64 CIRM-funded clinical trials to date, eight of these have been conducted at UCLA. Most notably, this includes a stem cell gene therapy approach developed by Donald Kohn, M.D. The approach was used in three different clinical trials for the following genetic diseases: X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD), bubbly baby disease (also known as SCID), and sickle cell disease. The SCID trial resulted in over 50 infants being cured of the disease, including little Evie. The other five clinical trials conducted at UCLA were for corneal damage, lung damage, skin cancer, sarcomas, and solid tumors.

Wide Reach of Conditions

CIRM grants at UCLA have supported research related to many conditions, including the following:

To read the full UCLA article that discusses some of the other grants, click here.

Perseverance: from theory to therapy. Our story over the last year – and a half

August 10, 2020 / Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

It’s been a long time coming. Eighteen months to be precise. Which is a peculiarly long time for an Annual Report. The world is certainly a very different place today than when we started, and yet our core mission hasn’t changed at all, except to spring into action to make our own contribution to fighting the coronavirus.

This latest CIRM Annual Reportcovers 2019 through June 30, 2020. Why? Well, as you probably know we are running out of money and could be funding our last new awards by the end of this year. So, we wanted to produce as complete a picture of our achievements as we could – keeping in mind that we might not be around to produce a report next year.

Dr. Catriona Jamieson, UC San Diego physician and researcher

It’s a pretty jam-packed report. It covers everything from the 14 new clinical trials we have funded this year, including three specifically focused on COVID-19. It looks at the extraordinary researchers that we fund and the progress they have made, and the billions of additional dollars our funding has helped leverage for California. But at the heart of it, and at the heart of everything we do, are the patients. They’re the reason we are here. They are the reason we do what we do.

Byron Jenkins, former Naval fighter pilot who battled back from his own fight with multiple myeloma

There are stories of people like Byron Jenkins who almost died from multiple myeloma but is now back leading a full, active life with his family thanks to a CIRM-funded therapy with Poseida. There is Jordan Janz, a young man who once depended on taking 56 pills a day to keep his rare disease, cystinosis, under control but is now hoping a stem cell therapy developed by Dr. Stephanie Cherqui and her team at UC San Diego will make that something of the past.

These individuals are remarkable on so many levels, not the least because they were willing to be among the first people ever to try these therapies. They are pioneers in every sense of the word.

Sneha Santosh, former CIRM Bridges student and now a researcher with Novo Nordisk

There is a lot of information in the report, charting the work we have done over the last 18 months. But it’s also a celebration of everyone who made it possible, and our way of saying thank you to the people of California who gave us this incredible honor and opportunity to do this work.

We hope you enjoy it.

Celebrating a life that almost didn’t happen

August 3, 2020 / Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

You can’t look at this photo and not smile. This is Evie Vaccaro, and it’s clear she is just bursting with energy and vitality. Sometimes it feels like I have known Evie all her life. In a way I have. And I feel so fortunate to have done so, and that’s why this photo is so powerful, because it’s a life that almost ended before it had a chance to start.

Evie was born with a rare condition called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). Children with this condition lack a functioning immune system so even a simple cold or diaper rash can prove fatal. Imagine how perilous their lives are in a time of COVID-19. These children used to be called “bubble babies” because they were often kept inside sterile plastic bubbles to keep them alive. Many died before their second birthday.

Today there is no need for plastic bubbles. Today, we have a cure. That’s a word we use very cautiously, but in Evie’s case, and the case of more than 40 other children, we use it with pride.

Dr. Don Kohn at UCLA has developed a method of taking the child’s own blood stem cells and, in the lab, inserting a corrected copy of the gene that caused SCID, and then returning those cells to the child. Because they are stem cells they multiply and renew and replicate themselves, creating a new blood supply, one free of the SCID mutation. The immune system is restored. The children are cured.

This is a story we have told several times before, but we mention it again because, well, it never gets old, and because Evie is on the front and back cover of our upcoming Annual Report. The report is actually a look back on the last 18 months in CIRM’s life, reporting on the progress we have made in advancing stem cell research, in saving and changing lives, and in producing economic benefits for California (billions of dollars in sales revenue and taxes and thousands of jobs).

Evie’s story, Evie’s photo, is a reminder of what is possible thanks to the voters of California who created CIRM back in 2004. Hers is just one of the stories in the report. I think, you’ll enjoy reading all of them.

Of course, I might be just a little bit biased.

Good news for two CIRM-supported therapies

November 20, 2019 / Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

Jake Javier, a patient in the spinal cord injury stem cell therapy clinical trial

It’s always satisfying to see two projects you have supported for a long time do well. That’s particularly true when the projects in question are targeting conditions that have no other effective therapies.

This week we learned that a clinical trial we funded to help people with spinal cord injuries continues to show benefits. This trial holds a special place in our hearts because it is an extension of the first clinical trial we ever funded. Initially it was with Geron, and was later taken up by Asterias Biotherapeutics, which has seen been bought by Lineage Cell Therapeutics Inc.

The therapy involved transplanting oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs), which are derived from human embryonic stem cells, into people who suffered recent spinal cord injuries that left them paralyzed from the neck down. OPCs play an important role in supporting and protecting nerve cells in the central nervous system, the area damaged in a spinal cord injury. It’s hoped the cells will help restore some of the connections at the injury site, allowing patients to regain some movement and feeling.

In a news release, Lineage said that its OPC therapy continues to report positive results, “where the overall safety profile of OPC1 has remained excellent with robust motor recovery in upper extremities maintained through Year 2 patient follow-ups available to date.”

Two years in the patients are all continuing to do well, and no serious unexpected side effects have been seen. They also reported:

– Motor level improvements

Five of six Cohort 2 patients achieved at least two motor levels of improvement over baseline on at least one side as of their 24-month follow-up visit.
In addition, one Cohort 2 patient achieved three motor levels of improvement on one side over baseline as of the patient’s 24-month follow-up visit; improvement has been maintained through the patient’s 36-month follow-up visit.

Brian M. Culley, CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics called the news “exciting”, saying “To put these improvements into perspective, a one motor level gain means the ability to move one’s arm, which contributes to the ability to feed and clothe oneself or lift and transfer oneself from a wheelchair. These are tremendously meaningful improvements to quality of life and independence.”

Evie, cured of SCID by a therapy licensed to Orchard Therapeutics

The other good news came from Orchard Therapeutics, a company we have partnered with on a therapy for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) also known as “bubble baby diseases” (we have blogged about this a lot including here).

In a news release Orchard announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted an accelerated assessment for their gene therapy for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD). This is a rare and often fatal condition that results in the build-up of sulfatides in the brain, liver, kidneys and other organs. Over time this makes it harder and harder for the person to walk, talk, swallow or eat.

Anne Dupraz-Poiseau, chief regulatory officer of Orchard Therapeutics, says this is testimony to the encouraging early results of this therapy. “We look forward to working with the EMA to ensure this potentially transformative new treatment, if approved, reaches patients in the EU as quickly as possible, and continuing our efforts to expand patient access outside the EU.”

The accelerated assessment potentially provides a reduced review timeline from 210 to 150 days, meaning it could be available to a wider group of patients sooner.

California’s Stem Cell Agency Accelerates Treatments to Patients

September 18, 2018 / Kevin McCormack / 3 Comments

The following article is an Op Ed that appeared in today’s print version of the San Francisco Chronicle

SanFranChronicle_Web

Biotechnology was born in California in the 1970s based on the discovery out of one of its universities and California is responsible for an industry that has impacted the lives of billions of people worldwide. In 2004, the voters of California approved Proposition 71, creating the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and setting the state on the path to becoming a global leader in stem cell research. Today the therapies resulting from the institute’s work are not just changing lives, they are already saving lives.

Lives like Evie Vaccaro, who is alive today because of a treatment CIRM is funding. Vaccaro was born with SCID, also known as “bubble baby disease,” an immune disorder that often kills babies in their first two years. Vaccaro and dozens of other babies were given stem cell treatments thanks to the institute. All are showing improvement; some are now several years past treatment and considered cured.

An accident left Jake Javier from Danville paralyzed from the chest down on the eve of his high school graduation. Javier was treated in a CIRM-funded clinical trial. Today he has regained the use of his arms and hands, is driving a car and is a sophomore at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Five other patients treated at the same time as Javier have all experienced improvements meaning that instead of needing round-the-clock care, they can lead independent lives.

A study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development estimated it takes at least 10 years and $2.6 billion to develop one successful drug. In 14 years, and with just $3 billion, CIRM has funded 1,000 different projects, enrolled 900 patients, and supported 49 different clinical trials targeting diseases such as cancer, kidney failure and leukemia. Four of these programs have received an expedited designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, meaning they could get faster approval to help more patients

We have created a network of world class medical clinics that have expertise in delivering treatments to patients. The CIRM Alpha Clinics offer treatments based on solid science, unlike the unlicensed clinics sprouting up around California that peddle unproven and potentially harmful therapies that cost patients thousands of dollars.

CIRM has:

Supported the creation of 12 stem-cell research facilities in California
Attracted hundreds of top-tier researchers to California
Trained a new generation of stem-cell scientists
Brought clinical trials to California — for example, one targeting ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease
Deployed rigorous scientific standards and support so our programs have a “seal of approval” to attract $2.7 billion in additional investments from industry and other sources.

We recently have partnered with the National Institutes of Health to break down barriers and speed up the approval process to bring curative treatments to patients with Sickle Cell Disease.

Have we achieved all we wanted to? Of course not. The first decade of CIRM’s life was laying the groundwork, developing the knowledge and expertise and refining processes so that we can truly accelerate progress. As a leader in this burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, CIRM needs to continue its mission of accelerating stem-cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.

Dr. Maria T. Millan is President and CEO and Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD, is the Board Chairman of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

The story behind the book about the Stem Cell Agency

June 20, 2018 / Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

Don Reed at his book launch: Photo by Todd Dubnicoff

WHY I WROTE “CALIFORNIA CURES” By Don C. Reed

It was Wednesday, June 13th, 2018, the launch day for my new book, “CALIFORNIA CURES: How the California Stem Cell Research Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease!”

As I stood in front of the audience of scientists, CIRM staff members, patient advocates, I thought to myself, “these are the kind of people who built the California stem cell program.” Wheelchair warriors Karen Miner and Susan Rotchy, sitting in the front row, typified the determination and resolve typical of those who fought to get the program off the ground. Now I was about to ask them to do it one more time.

My first book about CIRM was “STEM CELL BATTLES: Proposition 71 and Beyond. It told the story of how we got started: the initial struggles—and a hopeful look into the future.

Imagine being in a boat on the open sea and there was a patch of green on the horizon. You could be reasonably certain those were the tops of coconut trees, and that there was an island attached—but all you could see was a patch of green.

Today we can see the island. We are not on shore yet, but it is real.

“CALIFORNIA CURES” shows what is real and achieved: the progress the scientists have made– and why we absolutely must continue.

For instance, in the third row were three little girls, their parents and grandparents.

One of them was Evangelina “Evie” Vaccaro, age 5. She was alive today because of CIRM, who had funded the research and the doctor who saved her.

Don Reed, Alysia Vaccaro and daughter Evie: Photo by Yimy Villa

Evie was born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) commonly called the “bubble baby” disease. It meant she could never go outside because her immune system could not protect her. Her mom and dad had to wear hospital masks to get near her, even just to give her a hug.

But Dr. Donald Kohn of UCLA operated on the tiny girl, taking out some of her bone marrow, repairing the genetic defect that caused SCID, then putting the bone marrow back.

Today, “Evie” glowed with health, and was cheerfully oblivious to the fuss she raised.

I was actually a little intimidated by her, this tiny girl who so embodied the hopes and dreams of millions. What a delight to hear her mother Alysia speak, explaining how she helped Evie understand her situation: she had “unicorn blood” which could help other little children feel better too.

This was CIRM in action, fighting to save lives and ease suffering.

If people really knew what is happening at CIRM, they would absolutely have to support it. That’s why I write, to get the message out in bite-size chunks.

You might know the federal statistics—133 million children, women and men with one or more chronic diseases—at a cost of $2.9 trillion dollars last year.

But not enough people know California’s battle to defeat those diseases.

Adrienne Shapiro at the book launch: Photo by Todd Dubnicoff

Champion patient advocate Adrienne Shapiro was with us, sharing a little of the stress a parent feels if her child has sickle cell anemia, and the science which gives us hope: the CIRM-funded doctor who cured Evie is working on sickle cell now.

Because of CIRM, newly paralyzed people now have a realistic chance to recover function: a stem cell therapy begun long ago (pride compels me to mention it was started by the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act, named after my son), is using stem cells to re-insulate damaged nerves in the spine. Six people were recently given the stem cell treatment pioneered by Hans Keirstead, (currently running for Congress!) and all six experienced some level of recovery, in a few cases regaining some use of their arms hands.

Are you old enough to remember the late Annette Funicello and Richard Pryor? These great entertainers were stricken by multiple sclerosis, a slow paralysis. A cure did not come in time for them. But the international cooperation between California’s Craig Wallace and Australia’s Claude Bernard may help others: by re-insulating MS-damaged nerves like what was done with spinal cord injury.

My brother David shattered his leg in a motorcycle accident. He endured multiple operations, had steel rods and plates inserted into his leg. Tomorrow’s accident recovery may be easier. At Cedars-Sinai, Drs. Dan Gazit and Hyun Bae are working to use stem cells to regrow the needed bone.

My wife suffers arthritis in her knees. Her pain is so great she tries to make only one trip a day down and up the stairs of our home. The cushion of cartilage in her knees is worn out, so it is bone on bone—but what if that living cushion could be restored? Dr. Denis Evseenko of UCLA is attempting just that.

As I spoke, on the wall behind me was a picture of a beautiful woman, Rosie Barrero, who had been left blind by retinitis pigmentosa. Rosie lost her sight when her twin children were born—and regained it when they were teenagers—seeing them for the first time, thanks to Dr. Henry Klassen, another scientist funded by CIRM.

What about cancer? That miserable condition has killed several of my family, and I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer myself. I had everything available– surgery, radiation, hormone shots which felt like harpoons—hopefully I am fine, but who knows for sure?

Irv Weissman, the friendly bear genius of Stanford, may have the answer to cancer. He recognized there were cancer stem cells involved. Nobody believed him for a while, but it is now increasingly accepted that these cancer stem cells have a coating of protein which makes them invisible to the body’s defenses. The Weissman procedure may peel off that “cloak of invisibility” so the immune system can find and kill them all—and thereby cure their owner.

What will happen when CIRM’s funding runs out next year?

If we do nothing, the greatest source of stem cell research funding will be gone. We need to renew CIRM. Patients all around the world are depending on us.

The California stem cell program was begun and led by Robert N. “Bob” Klein. He not only led the campaign, was its chief writer and number one donor, but he was also the first Chair of the Board, serving without pay for the first six years. It was an incredible burden; he worked beyond exhaustion routinely.

Would he be willing to try it again, this time to renew the funding of a successful program? When I asked him, he said:

“If California polls support the continuing efforts of CIRM—then I am fully committed to a 2020 initiative to renew the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).”

Shakespeare said it best in his famous “to be or not to be” speech, asking if it is “nobler …to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles—and by opposing, end them”.

Should we passively endure chronic disease and disability—or fight for cures?

California’s answer was the stem cell program CIRM—and continuing CIRM is the reason I wrote this book.

Don C. Reed is the author of “CALIFORNIA CURES: How the California Stem Cell Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease!”, from World Scientific Publishing, Inc., publisher of the late Professor Stephen Hawking.

For more information, visit the author’s website: www.stemcellbattles.com

SCID kid scores big on TV

June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 / Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

Evie at book signing

One of the stories I never tire of telling is about Evie Vaccaro. She’s the little girl who was born with a fatal immune condition called severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID. Children with this condition have no immune system, no protection against infections, and often die in the first two years of life. But thanks to a stem cell therapy Evie was cured.

Evie is now five years old. A happy, healthy and, as we discovered last week, a very energetic kid. That’s because Evie and her family came to CIRM to celebrate the launch of Don Reed’s new book, “California Cures! How the California Stem Cell Program is Fighting Your Incurable Disease”.

Don Reed with Alysia and Evie Vaccaro – Photo courtesy Yimy Villa

Don’s book is terrific – well, it’s about CIRM so I might be biased – but Evie stole the show, and the hearts of everyone there.

KTVU, the local Fox News TV station, did a couple of stories about Evie. Here’s one of them.

We will have more on Don Reed’s book later this week.

The Stem Cellar

The Official Blog of CIRM, California's Stem Cell Agency

Evie Vaccaro

Bubble baby treatment cleared to restart clinical trial