Award Type: Development Candidate Award
Extracellular Matrix Bioscaffold Augmented with Human Stem Cells for Cardiovascular Repair
An estimated 16.3 million Americans suffer from coronary heart disease. Every 25 seconds, someone has a coronary event and every minute, someone dies from one. Treatment for coronary heart disease has improved greatly in recent years, yet 1 in 6 deaths in the US in 2007 was still caused by this terrible disease. Stem cells […]
Autologous iPSC Therapy for Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence (UI) is common and serious, with two-thirds of the burden borne by women. UI impacts both quality and length of life; women with UI suffer debilitating falls, experience social isolation and are clinically-depressed more commonly than continent women. UI is the primary reason for elderly women to be institutionalized and carries an annual […]
Functional Neural Relay Formation by Human Neural Stem Cell Grafting in Spinal Cord Injury
We aim to develop a novel stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI) that is substantially more potent than previous stem cell treatments. By combining grafts of neural stem cells with scaffolds placed in injury sites, we have been able to optimize graft survival and filling of the injury site. Grafted cells extend long […]
Multiple Sclerosis therapy: Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Progenitor Cells
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) caused by inflammation and loss of cells that produce myelin, which normally insulates and protects nerve cells. MS is a leading cause of neurological disability among young adults in North America. Current treatments for MS include drugs such as interferons and corticosteroids that […]
Targeting Stem Cells to Enhance Remyelination in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the myelin sheath that insulates neurons is destroyed, resulting in loss of proper neuronal function. Existing treatments for MS are based on strategies that suppress the immune response. While these drugs do provide benefit by reducing relapses and delaying progression (but have significant side effects), the […]
Liver Cell Transplantation
Because there is still considerable morbidity and mortality associated with the process of whole liver transplantation, and because more than a thousand people die each year while on the liver transplantation list, and tens of thousands more never get on the list because of the lack of available livers, it is evident that improved and […]
Development of RNA-based approaches to stem cell gene therapy for HIV
Despite significant advances in treatment and prevention programs, HIV infection with progression to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is still prevalent in California. The CDC Estimates >56,000 new cases of HIV infection each year in the US with over 148,000 cumulative cases reported in California alone (as of 2009). Multi-drug therapy has been helpful in reducing […]
Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Heal Chronic Diabetic Wounds
Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), chronic, non-healing wounds on the feet of diabetic patients, present a serious challenge to global health. These ulcers affect between 15-25% of the 18-21 million Americans who have diabetes (world-wide incidence of diabetes: 366 million people). DFUs have a huge impact on our health care system, not only in terms of […]
Stem cell-based carriers for RCR vector delivery to glioblastoma
Modified viruses can be used to infect tumor cells and alter the tumor cell to make anti-tumor proteins. Most researchers use virus that can infect and modify the tumor cell it enters, but can not make more of itself to infect additional cells surrounding the original infected cell. This type of virus is called replication-incompetent […]
Crosstalk: Inflammation in Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a humanized in vitro model
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. It is characterized by motor impairment such as slowness of movements, shaking and gait disturbances. Age is the most consistent risk factor for PD, and as we have an aging population, it is of upmost importance that we find therapies to limit the social, economic […]