Maria Millan

CIRM Board invests $5 million in emergency funding for coronavirus

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment
Coronavirus

In response to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus in California and around the world the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) today held an emergency meeting to approve $5 million in rapid research funds targeting the virus.

“These are clearly extraordinary times and they require an extraordinary response from all of us,” says Dr. Maria T. Millan, President and CEO of CIRM. “Our mission is to accelerate stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. California researchers have made us aware that they are pursuing potential stem cell based approaches to the COVID-19 crisis and we felt it was our responsibility to respond by doing all we can to support this research and doing so as quickly as we possibly can.”

The Board’s decision enables CIRM to allocate $5 million in funding for peer-reviewed regenerative medicine and stem cell research that could quickly advance treatments for COVID-19. The funding will be awarded as part of an expedited approval process.

To qualify applicants would go through a full review by CIRM’s independent Grants Working Group.

  • Approved projects will be immediately forwarded to the CIRM Board for a vote
  • Projects approved by the Board would go through an accelerated contract process to ensure funds are distributed as quickly as possible

“Our hope is that we can go from application to funding within 30 to 40 days,” says Jonathan Thomas, PhD, JD, Chair of the CIRM Board. “This is a really tight timeframe, but we can’t afford to waste a moment. There is too much at stake. The coronavirus is creating an unprecedented threat to all of us and, as one of the leading players in regenerative medicine, we are committed to doing all we can to develop the tools and promote the research that will help us respond to that threat.”

Only projects that target the development or testing of a treatment for COVID-19 are eligible. They must also meet other requirements including being ready to start work within 30 days of approval and propose achieving a clear deliverable within six months. The proposed therapy must also involve a stem cell or a drug or antibody targeting stem cells.

The award amounts and duration of the award are as follows:

Award Amount and Duration Limits

Project StageSpecific ProgramAward Amount*Award Duration
Clinical trialCLIN2$750,00024 months
Late stage preclinicalCLIN1$400,00012 months
TranslationalTRAN1$350,00012 months
DiscoveryDISC2$150,00012 months

CIRM Board members were unanimous in their support for the program. Al Rowlett, the patient advocate for mental health, said: “Given the complexity of this situation and the fact that many of the individuals I represent aren’t able to advocate for themselves, I wholeheartedly support this.”

Dr. Os Steward, from UC Irvine agreed: “I think that this is a very important thing for CIRM to do for a huge number of reasons. The concept is great and CIRM is perfectly positioned to do this.”

“All hands are on deck world-wide in this fight against COVID-19.” says Dr. Millan. “CIRM will deploy its accelerated funding model to arm our stem cell researchers in this multi-pronged and global attack on the virus.”

You can learn more about the program, including how to apply, on our website.

Big time validation for early support

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It’s not every day that a company and a concept that you helped support from the very beginning gets snapped up for $4.9 billion. But that’s what is happening with Forty Seven Inc. and their anti-cancer therapies. Gilead, another California company by the way, has announced it is buying Forty Seven Inc. for almost $5 billion.

The deal gives Gilead access to Forty Seven’s lead antibody therapy, magrolimab, which switches off CD47, a kind of “do not eat me” signal that cancer cells use to evade the immune system.

CIRM has supported this program from its very earliest stages, back in 2013, when it was a promising idea in need of funding. Last year we blogged about the progress it has made from a hopeful concept to an exciting therapy.

When Forty Seven Inc. went public in 2018, Dr. Irv Weissman, one of the founders of the company, attributed a lot of their success to CIRM’s support.

Dr. Irv Weissman

“The story of the funding of this work all of the way to its commercialization and the clinical trials reported in the New England Journal of Medicine is simply this: CIRM funding of a competitive grant took a mouse discovery of the CD47 ‘don’t eat me’ signal through all preclinical work to and through a phase 1 IND with the FDA. Our National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund any part of the clinical trial or preclinical run up to the trial, so it is fortunate for those patients and those that will follow, if the treatment continues its success in larger trials, that California voters took the state’s right action to fund research not funded by the federal government.”

Dr. Maria Millan, CIRM’s President & CEO, says the deal is a perfect example of CIRM’s value to the field of regenerative medicine and our ability to work with our grantees to make them as successful as possible.

“To say this is incredible would be an understatement! Words cannot describe how excited we are that this novel approach to battling currently untreatable malignancies has the prospect of making it to patients in need and this is a major step. Speaking on behalf of CIRM, we are very honored to have been a partner with Forty Seven Inc. from the very beginning.

CIRM Senior Science Officer, Dr. Ingrid Caras, was part of the team that helped a group of academic scientists take their work out of the lab and into the real world.

“I had the pleasure of working with and helping the Stanford team since CIRM provided the initial funding to translate the idea of developing CD47 blockade as a therapeutic approach. This was a team of superb scientists who we were fortunate to work closely with them to navigate the Regulatory environment and develop a therapeutic product. We were able to provide guidance as well as funding and assist in the ultimate success of this project.”

Forty Seven Inc. is far from the only example of this kind of support and collaboration. We have always seen ourselves as far more than just a funding agency. Money is important, absolutely. But so too is bringing the experience and expertise of our team to help academic scientists take a promising idea and turn it into a successful therapy.

After all that’s what our mission is, doing all we can to accelerate stem cell therapies to patients with unmet medical needs. And after a deal like this, Forty Seven Inc. is definitely accelerating its work.

New Report Says CIRM Produces Big Economic Boost for California

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

An independent Economic Impact Report says the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has had a major impact on California’s economy, creating tens of thousands of new jobs, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes, and producing billions of dollars in additional revenue for the state.

The report, done by Dan Wei and Adam Rose at the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, looked at the impacts of CIRM funding on both the state and national economy from the start of the Stem Cell Agency in 2004 to the end of 2018.

The total impacts on the California economy are estimated to be:

  • $10.7 billion of additional gross output (sales revenue)
  • $641.3 million of additional state/local tax revenues
  • $726.6 million of additional federal tax revenues
  • 56,549 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, half of which offer salaries considerably higher than the state average

Maria Millan, M.D., CIRM’s President and CEO, says the report reflects the Agency’s role in building an ecosystem to accelerate the translation of important stem cell science to solutions for patients with unmet medical needs. “CIRM’s mission on behalf of patients has been the priority from day one, but this report shows that CIRM funding brings additional benefits to the state. This report reflects how CIRM is promoting economic growth in California by attracting scientific talent and additional capital, and by creating an environment that supports the development of businesses and commercial enterprises in the state”

In addition to the benefits to California, the impacts outside of California on the US economy are estimated to be:

  • $4.7 billion of additional gross output (sales revenue)
  • $198.7 million of additional state (non-Californian) & local tax revenue
  • $208.6 million of additional federal tax revenues
  • 25,816 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs

The researchers summarize their findings, saying: “In terms of economic impacts, the state’s investment in CIRM has paid handsome dividends in terms of output, employment, and tax revenues for California.”

The estimates in the report are based on the economic stimulus created by CIRM funding and by the co-funding that researchers and companies were required to provide for clinical and late-stage preclinical projects. The estimates also include:

  • Investments in CIRM-supported projects from private funders such as equity investments, public offerings and mergers and acquisitions,
  • Follow-on funding from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations due to data generated in CIRM-funded projects
  • Funding generated by clinical trials held at CIRM’s Alpha Stem Cell Clinics network

The researchers state “Nearly half of these impacts emanate from the $2.67 billion CIRM grants themselves.”

“The economic impact of California’s investment in stem and regenerative cell research is reflective of significant progress in this field that was just being born at the time of CIRM’s creation,” says Dr. Millan. “We fund the most promising projects based on rigorous science from basic research into clinical trials. We partnered with researchers and companies to increase the likelihood of success and created specialized infrastructure such as the Alpha Clinics Network to support the highest quality of clinical care and research standards for these novel approaches.  The ecosystem created by CIRM has attracted scientists, companies and capital from outside the state to California. By supporting promising science projects early on, long before most investors were ready to come aboard, we enabled our scientists to make progress that positioned them to attract significant commercial investments into their programs and into California.”

These partnerships have helped move promising therapies out of the lab and into clinical trials for companies like Orchard Therapeutics’ successful treatment for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency and Forty Seven Inc.’s innovative approach to treating cancer.

Dr. Don Kohn: Photo courtesy UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

“I think one of the greatest strengths of CIRM has been their focus on development of new stem cell therapies that can become real medicines,” says UCLA and Orchard Therapeutics’ Don Kohn, M.D. “This has meant guiding academic investigators to do the things that may be second nature in industry/pharmaceutical companies but are not standard for basic or clinical research.  The support from CIRM to perform the studies and regulatory activities needed to navigate therapies through the FDA and to form alliances with biotech and pharma companies has allowed the stem cell gene therapy we developed to treat SCID babies to be advanced and licensed to Orchard Therapeutics who can make it available to patients across the country.”

Dr. Mark Chao: Photo courtesy Forty Seven Inc.

“CIRM’s support has been instrumental to our early successes and our ability to rapidly progress Forty Seven’s CD47 antibody targeting approach with magrolimab,” says Mark Chao, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Vice President of Clinical Development at Forty Seven Inc. “ CIRM was an early collaborator in our clinical programs, and will continue to be a valued partner as we move forward with our MDS/AML clinical trials.”

The researchers say the money generated by partnerships and investments, what is called “deal-flow funding”, is still growing and that the economic benefits created by them are likely to continue for some time: “Deal-flow funding usually involves several waves or rounds of capital infusion over many years, and thus is it expected that CIRM’s past and current funding will attract increasing amounts of industry investment and lead to additional spending injections into the California economy in the years to come.”

They conclude their report by saying: “CIRM has led to California stem cell research and development activities becoming a leader among the states.”

CIRM public events highlight uncertain future of stem cell research

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments

When governments cut funding for scientific research the consequences can be swift, and painful. In Canada last week for example, the government of Ontario cut $5 million in annual funding for stem cell research, effectively ending a project developing a therapy to heal the damaged lungs of premature babies.

Here in the US the federal government is already placing restrictions on support for fetal tissue research and there is speculation embryonic stem cell research could be next. That’s why agencies like CIRM are so important. We don’t rely on a government giving us money every year. Instead, thanks to the voters of California, we have had a steady supply of funds to enable us to plan long-term and support multi-year projects.

But those funds are due to run out soon. We anticipate funding our last new awards this year and while we have enough money to continue supporting all the projects our Board has already approved, we won’t be able to take on any new projects. That’s bad news for the scientists and, ultimately, really bad for the patients who are in need of new treatments for currently incurable diseases.

We are going to talk about that in two upcoming events.

UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center

The first is a patient advocate event at UC San Diego on Tuesday, May 28th from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. It’s free, there is parking and snacks and refreshments will be available.

This will feature UC San Diego’s Dr. Catriona Jamieson, CIRM’s President and CEO Dr. Maria Millan and CIRM Board member and Patient Advocate for Parkinson’s Disease, David Higgins PhD. The three will talk about the exciting progress being made at UC San Diego and other programs around California, but also the uncertain future and the impact that could have for the field as a whole.

Here’s a link to an Eventbrite page that has more information about the event and also a link to allow you to RSVP ahead of time.

For all of you who don’t live in the San Diego Area – or who do but can’t make it to the event – we are holding a similar discussion online on a special Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team About the Future of Stem Cell Research event on Thursday, May 30th from noon till 1pm PDT.

This also features Dr. Millan and Dr. Higgins, but it also features UC Davis stem cell scientist, CIRM-grantee and renowned blogger Paul Knoepfler PhD.

Each brings their own experience, expertise and perspective on the field and will discuss the impact that a reduction in funding for stem cell research would have, not just in the short term but in the long run.

Because we all have a stake in what happens, both events – whether it’s in person or online – include time for questions from you, the audience.

You can find our Facebook Live: Ask the Stem Cell Team About the Future of Stem Cell Research on our Facebook page at noon on May 30th PDT

Stories that caught our eye: FDA grants orphan drug status to CIRM-funded therapy; stunning discovery upends ideas of cell formation; and how tadpoles grow new tails

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

Gut busting discovery

Intestinal stem cells: Photo courtesy Klaus Kaestner, Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine

It’s not often you read the word “sensational” in a news release about stem cells. But this week researchers at the University of Copenhagen released findings that are overturning long-held ideas about the development of cells in our stomachs. So perhaps calling it “sensational” is not too big a stretch.

In the past it was believed that the development of immature cells in our stomachs, before a baby is born, was predetermined, that the cells had some kind of innate sense of what they were going to become and when. Turns out that’s not the case. The researchers say it’s the cells’ environment that determines what they will become and that all cells in the fetus’ gut have the potential to turn into stem cells.

In the “sensational” news release lead author, Kim Jensen, says this finding could help in the development of new therapies.

“We used to believe that a cell’s potential for becoming a stem cell was predetermined, but our new results show that all immature cells have the same probability for becoming stem cells in the fully developed organ. In principle, it is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Here signals from the cells’ surroundings determine their fate. If we are able to identify the signals that are necessary for the immature cell to develop into a stem cell, it will be easier for us to manipulate cells in the wanted direction’.

The study is published in the journal Nature.                             

A tale of a tail

African clawed frog tadpole: Photo courtesy Gary Nafis

It’s long been known that some lizards and other mammals can regrow severed limbs, but it hasn’t been clear how. Now scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK have figured out what’s going on.

Using single-cell genomics the scientists were able to track which genes are turned on and off at particular times, allowing them to watch what happens inside the tail of the African clawed frog tadpole as it regenerates the damaged limb.

They found that the response was orchestrated by a group of skin cells they called Regeneration-Organizing Cells, or ROCs. Can Aztekin, one of the lead authors of the study in the journal Science, says seeing how ROCs work could lead to new ideas on how to stimulate similar regeneration in other mammals.

“It’s an astonishing process to watch unfold. After tail amputation, ROCs migrate from the body to the wound and secrete a cocktail of growth factors that coordinate the response of tissue precursor cells. These cells then work together to regenerate a tail of the right size, pattern and cell composition.”

Orphan Drug Designation for CIRM-funded therapy

Poseida Therapeutics got some good news recently about their CIRM-funded therapy for multiple myeloma. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted them orphan drug designation.

Orphan drug designation is given to therapies targeting rare diseases or disorders that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. It means the company may be eligible for grant funding toward clinical trial costs, tax advantages, FDA user-fee benefits and seven years of market exclusivity in the United States following marketing approval by the FDA.

CIRM’s President and CEO, Dr. Maria Millan, says the company is using a gene-modified cell therapy approach to help people who are not responding to traditional approaches.

“Poseida’s technology is seeking to destroy these cancerous myeloma cells with an immunotherapy approach that uses the patient’s own engineered immune system T cells to seek and destroy the myeloma cells.”

Poseida’s CEO, Eric Ostertag, said the designation is an important milestone for the company therapy which “has demonstrated outstanding potency, with strikingly low rates of toxicity in our phase 1 clinical trial. In fact, the FDA has approved fully outpatient dosing in our Phase 2 trial starting in the second quarter of 2019.”

The Past, the Present, and the Uncertain Future of Stem Cell Research

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment
Ronnie, a boy who was born without a functioning immune system but who is thriving today because of CIRM funded research

When CIRM was created in 2004 the field of stem cell research was still very much in its infancy. Fast forward 15 years and it’s moving ahead at a rapid pace, probably faster than most scientists would have predicted. How fast? Find out for yourself at a free public event at UC San Diego on May 28th from 12.30 to 1.30p.

In the last 15 years CIRM has funded 53 clinical trials in everything from heart disease and stroke, to spinal cord injury, vision loss, sickle cell disease and HIV/AIDS.

UCSD was one of the first medical centers chosen to host a CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic – a specialist center with the experience and expertise to deliver stem cell therapies to patients – and to date is running more than a dozen clinical trials for breast cancer, heart failure, leukemia and chronic lower back pain.

Clearly progress is being made. But the field is also facing some challenges. Funding at the federal level for stem cell research is under threat, and CIRM is entering what could be its final phase. We have enough money left to fund new projects through this year (and these are multi-year projects so they will run into 2021 or 2022) but unless there is a new round of funding we will slowly disappear. And with us, may also disappear the hopes of some of the most promising projects underway.

If CIRM goes, then projects that we have supported and nurtured through different phases of research may struggle to make it into a clinical trial because they can’t get the necessary funding.

Clearly this is a pivotal time in the field.

We will discuss all this, the past, the present and the uncertain future of stem cell research at the meeting at UC San Diego on May 28th. The doors will open at noon for registration (snacks and light refreshments will also be available) and the program runs from 12.30p to 1.30p.

The speakers are:

  • Dr. Catriona Jamieson, Director of the UC San Diego Health CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic and Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center.
  • Dr. Maria Millan, President and CEO of CIRM
  • Dr. David Higgins, CIRM Board member and Patient Advocate for Parkinson’s Disease.

And of course, we want to hear from you, so we’ll leave plenty of time for questions.

Free parking is available.

Go here for more information about the event and how you can register

Free free to share this with anyone you think might be interested in joining us and we look forward to seeing you there.

Advancing stem cell research in many ways

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments
Speakers at the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network Symposium: Photo by Marco Sanchez

From Day One CIRM’s goal has been to advance stem cell research in California. We don’t do that just by funding the most promising research -though the 51 clinical trials we have funded to date clearly shows we do that rather well – but also by trying to bring the best minds in the field together to overcome problems.

Over the years we have held conferences, workshops and symposiums on everything from Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy and tissue engineering. Each one attracted the key players and stakeholders in the field, brainstorming ideas to get past obstacles and to explore new ways of developing therapies. It’s an attempt to get scientists, who would normally be rivals or competitors, to collaborate and partner together in finding the best way forward.

It’s not easy to do, and the results are not always obvious right away, but it is essential if we hope to live up to our mission of accelerating stem cell therapies to patients with unmet medical needs.

For example. This past week we helped organize two big events and were participants in another.

The first event we pulled together, in partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was a workshop called “Brainstorm Neurodegeneration”. It brought together leaders in stem cell research, genomics, big data, patient advocacy and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to tackle some of the issues that have hampered progress in finding treatments for things like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS and Huntington’s disease.

We rather ambitiously subtitled the workshop “a cutting-edge meeting to disrupt the field” and while the two days of discussions didn’t resolve all the problems facing us it did produce some fascinating ideas and some tantalizing glimpses at ways to advance the field.

Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network Symposium: Photo by Marco Sanchez

Two days later we partnered with UC San Francisco to host the Fourth Annual CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network Symposium. This brought together the scientists who develop therapies, the doctors and nurses who deliver them, and the patients who are in need of them. The theme was “The Past, Present & Future of Regenerative Medicine” and included both a look at the initial discoveries in gene therapy that led us to where we are now as well as a look to the future when cellular therapies, we believe, will become a routine option for patients. 

Bringing these different groups together is important for us. We feel each has a key role to play in moving these projects and out of the lab and into clinical trials and that it is only by working together that they can succeed in producing the treatments and cures patients so desperately need.

Cierra Jackson: Photo by Marco Sanchez

As always it was the patients who surprised us. One, Cierra Danielle Jackson, talked about what it was like to be cured of her sickle cell disease. I think it’s fair to say that most in the audience expected Cierra to talk about her delight at no longer having the crippling and life-threatening condition. And she did. But she also talked about how hard it was adjusting to this new reality.

Cierra said sickle cell disease had been a part of her life for all her life, it shaped her daily life and her relationships with her family and many others. So, to suddenly have that no longer be a part of her caused a kind of identity crisis. Who was she now that she was no longer someone with sickle cell disease?

She talked about how people with most diseases were normal before they got sick, and will be normal after they are cured. But for people with sickle cell, being sick is all they have known. That was their normal. And now they have to adjust to a new normal.

It was a powerful reminder to everyone that in developing new treatments we have to consider the whole person, their psychological and emotional sides as well as the physical.

CIRM’s Dr. Maria Millan (right) at a panel presentation at the Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium. Panel from left to right are: James Doroshow, NCI; Sandy Weill, former CEO Citigroup; Allan Jones, CEO Allen Institute

And so on to the third event we were part of, the Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium. This was a high level, invitation-only scientific meeting that included some heavy hitters – such as Nobel Prize winners Paul Berg and  Randy Schekman, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf. Over the course of two days they examined the role that philanthropy plays in advancing research, the increasingly important role of immunotherapy in battling diseases like cancer and how tools such as artificial intelligence and big data are shaping the future.

CIRM’s President and CEO, Dr. Maria Millan, was one of those invited to speak and she talked about how California’s investment in stem cell research is delivering Something Better than Hope – which by a happy coincidence is the title of our 2018 Annual Report. She highlighted some of the 51 clinical trials we have funded, and the lives that have been changed and saved by this research.

The presentations at these conferences and workshops are important, but so too are the conversations that happen outside the auditorium, over lunch or at coffee. Many great collaborations have happened when scientists get a chance to share ideas, or when researchers talk to patients about their ideas for a successful clinical trial.

It’s amazing what happens when you bring people together who might otherwise never have met. The ideas they come up with can change the world.

Targeting clinics offering bogus stem cell therapies

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments

For some years now CIRM has been raising the alarm about the growing numbers of clinics offering unproven and unapproved stem cell therapies. But we are not alone. Now a leader of the California state Assembly is taking action, trying to ensure the clinics follow the law and don’t endanger patients.

Kevin Mullin is the Speaker pro Tem in the Assembly. He is championing a bill, AB 617, that will create a Stem Cell Clinic Regulation Advisory Group. In a news release Mullin said the motivation behind the bill is simple:

“As the Chair of the Select Committee on Biotechnology, I have heard from patients who have experienced both sides of the treatment continuum. It is clear that more must be done to ensure the proper regulation of for-profit stem cell clinics.”

Concerns about these clinics are well-founded. The clinics claim the treatments they offer – usually involving the use of the patient’s own fat or blood cells – can help address everything from arthritis to Alzheimer’s but offer little or no proof. Because the “therapies” are not approved by the FDA they are not covered by insurance, so people spend thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars for something that is almost guaranteed to do little to help. In some cases, the “treatments” have had disastrous results, harming patients.

The news release from Speaker pro Tem Mullin’s office says CIRM has helped position California as a leader in stem cell research. 

“Unfortunately, not all stem cell clinics are adhering to the expected high standards of review within the industry and, as a result, patients have been subjected to unscrupulous, sometimes harmful practices. AB 617 will address those entities by creating a Stem Cell Clinic Regulation Advisory Group.”

The Advisory Group will review existing licensing and certification laws for clinics offering stem cell therapies. The Group would then make recommendations to the Legislature about ways to improve the existing rules and ensure greater protection for patients. CIRM has been working with Speaker pro Tem Mullin on AB 617 and, as our President & CEO, Maria Millan, said we will continue to do so.

“We fully support AB 617 and Speaker pro Tem Mullin’s efforts to protect California consumers from unregulated and unproven stem cell treatments.  AB 617 will help patients, their families and the medical community identify legitimate clinics that offer scientifically tested clinical trials and treatments that meet federal regulatory requirements.  The field of regenerative medicine and cell and gene therapy are coming of age and entering the realm of medical practice, so AB 617 would set up an important foundation for ensuring that the highest quality care is provided to patients seeking these treatments.”

CIRM Invests in Chemotherapy-Free Approach to Rare But Deadly Childhood Disease

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David Vetter, boy diagnosed with SCID

Imagine being told that your seemingly healthy newborn baby has a life-threatening disease. In a moment your whole world is turned upside down. That’s the reality for families with a child diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Children with SCID lack a functioning immune system so even a simple cold can prove fatal. Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded $3.7 million to develop a new approach that could help these children.

The funding will enable Stanford’s Dr. Judith Shizuru to complete an earlier CIRM-funded Phase 1 clinical trial using a chemotherapy-free transplant procedure for SCID.

Dr. Judy Shizuru: Photo courtesy Stanford University

The goal of the project is to replace SCID patients’ dysfunctional immune cells with healthy ones using a safer form of bone marrow transplant (BMT). Current BMT procedures use toxic chemotherapy to make space in the bone marrow for the healthy transplanted stem cells to take root and multiply. The Stanford team is testing a safe, non-toxic monoclonal antibody that targets and removes the defective blood forming stem cellsin order to promote the engraftment of the transplanted stem cells in the patient. 

The funding is contingent on Dr. Shizuru raising $1.7 million in co-funding by May 1 of this year. 

“This research highlights two of the things CIRM was created to do,” says Maria T. Millan, MD, President & CEO of CIRM. “We fund projects affecting small numbers of patients, something many organizations or companies aren’t willing to do, and we follow those projects from the bench to the bedside, supporting them every step along the way.”

Early testing has shown promise in helping patients and it’s hoped that if this approach is successful in children with SCID it may also open up similar BMT therapies for patients with other auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, lupus or diabetes.

Stem Cell Agency Board Approves 50th Clinical Trial

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment

2018-12-13 01.18.50Rich Lajara

Rich Lajara, the first patient treated in a CIRM-funded clinical trial

May 4th, 2011 marked a landmark moment for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). On that day the Stem Cell Agency’s Board voted to invest in its first ever clinical trial, which was also the first clinical trial to use cells derived from embryonic stem cells. Today the Stem Cell Agency reached another landmark, with the Board voting to approve its 50th clinical trial.

“We have come a long way in the past seven and a half years, helping advance the field from its early days to a much more mature space today, one capable of producing new treatments and even cures,” says Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD, Chair of the CIRM Board. “But we feel that in many ways we are just getting started, and we intend funding as many additional clinical trials as we can for as long as we can.”

angiocrinelogo

The project approved today awards almost $6.2 million to Angiocrine Bioscience Inc. to see if genetically engineered cells, derived from cord blood, can help alleviate or accelerate recovery from the toxic side effects of chemotherapy for people undergoing treatment for lymphoma and other aggressive cancers of the blood or lymph system.

“This is a project that CIRM has supported from an earlier stage of research, highlighting our commitment to moving the most promising research out of the lab and into people,” says Maria T. Millan, MD, President & CEO of CIRM. “Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer and the 6th most commonly diagnosed cancer in California. Despite advances in therapy many patients still suffer severe complications from the chemotherapy, so any treatment that can reduce those complications can not only improve quality of life but also, we hope, improve long term health outcomes for patients.”

The first clinical trial CIRM funded was with Geron, targeting spinal cord injury. While Geron halted the trial for business reasons (and returned the money, with interest) the mantle was later picked up by Asterias Biotherapeutics, which has now treated 25 patients with no serious side effects and some encouraging results.

Rich Lajara was part of the Geron trial, the first patient ever treated in a CIRM-funded clinical trial. He came to the CIRM Board meeting to tell his story saying when he was injured “I knew immediately I was paralyzed. I thought this was the end, little did I know this was just the beginning. I call it being in the wrong place at the right time.”

When he learned about the Geron clinical trial he asked how many people had been treated with stem cells. “Close to none” he was told. Nonetheless he went ahead with it. He says he has never regretted that decision, knowing it helped inform the research that has since helped others.

Since that first trial the Stem Cell Agency has funded a wide range of projects targeting heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and several rare diseases. You can see the full list on the Clinical Trials Dashboard page on our website.

Rich ended by saying: “CIRM has proven how much can be achieved if we invest in cutting-edge medical research. As most of you here probably know, CIRM’s funding from Proposition 71 is about to run out. If I had just one message I wanted people to leave with today it would be this, I will do everything I can to make sure the agency gets refunded and I hope that all of you will join me in that fight. I’m excited for the world of stem cells, particularly in California and can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.”

lubinbert-mug

The CIRM Board also took time today to honor Dr. Bert Lubin, who is stepping down after serving almost eight years on the Board.

When he joined the Board in February, 2011 Dr. Lubin said: “I hope to use my position on this committee to advocate for stem cell research that translates into benefits for children and adults, not only in California but throughout the world.”

Over the years he certainly lived up to that goal. As a CIRM Board member he has supported research for a broad range of unmet medical needs, and specifically for curative treatments for children born with a rare life-threatening conditions such as Sickle Cell Disease and Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) as well as  treatments to help people battling vision destroying diseases.

As the President & CEO of Children’s Hospital Oakland (now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland) Dr. Lubin was a leader in helping advance research into new treatments for sickle cell disease and addressing health disparities in diseases such as asthma, diabetes and obesity.

Senator Art Torres said he has known Dr. Lubin since the 1970’s and in all that time has been impressed by his devotion to patients, and his humility, and that all Californians should be grateful to him for his service, and his leadership.

Dr. Lubin said he was “Really grateful to be on the Board and I consider it an honor to be part of a group that benefits patients.”

He said he may be stepping down from the CIRM Board but that was all: “I am going to retire the word retirement. I think it’s a mistake to stop doing work that you find stimulating. I’m going to repurpose the rest of my life, and work to make sure the treatments we’ve helped develop are available to everyone. I am so proud to be part of this. I am stepping down, but I am devoted to doing all I can to ensure that you get the resources you need to sustain this work for the future.”