Our trainees have continued to engage in the rigorous educational elements of the program. We had several new trainees join this year who were given the option to take the multi-institutional team-taught Core Course their predessor have already taken, which provided current information in stem cell biology, medicine, and ethics.

The trainees will also participated in and presented at a multi-institutional retreat in January 2024 that encourages scholarly interaction between colleagues within the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (a CIRM major facility). Trainees also engaged the broader San Diego community by participating in K12 outreach programs and mentoring high school and undergraduate summer interns.

Trainees have made significant scientific progress in projects to advance the fields of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. They made strides toward identifying strategies and therapies to differentiate neural progenitor cells to treat multiple sclerosis, regenerate heart tissue after heart failure, regenerate pancreatic beta cells for diabetes, and expand progenitor cells for lung and intestinal diseases. They also made significant progress in oncology, investigating the role of natural killer cells and allogeneic CAR-T cells for cancer cell therapy and identifying therapies that prevent tumor progression through suppression of cancer stem cells. Other trainees studied stem cells in the context of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

Through this program, trainees are not only developing advanced skills to pursue future careers in stem cell research and regenerative medicine, but they are also conducting fundamental and applied research that has potential to address critical unmet medical needs impacting millions.