Disease Focus: Genetic Disorder
Ex vivo Engineering of Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cells for the Treatment of Hypophosphatasia
Therapeutic Candidate or Device Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells collected from patients with hypophosphatasia and genetically modified with a lentiviral vector to release TNALP Indication Hypophosphatasia (HPP) Therapeutic Mechanism We are proposing a cell-based enzyme replacement therapy for HPP: autologous gene-modified hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) will be infused into the patient and will engraft into the bone […]
Genome Editing of Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cells to Treat Severe Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 (Hurler Syndrome)
Therapeutic Candidate or Device Autologous blood stem cells edited to restore iduronidase expression Indication Severe Mucopolysaccharidosis Type 1 (MPS1/ Hurler's syndrome) Therapeutic Mechanism Autologous blood stem cells undergo genome editing to restore the production of the missing enzyme. These cells are returned to the patient to replace their bone marrow, where they can secrete functional […]
Ex vivo transduced autologous human CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells for treatment of cystinosis
Therapeutic Candidate or Device Transduced Hematopoietic Stem Cells from Peripheral Blood Stem Cells of adults and pediatric patients with cystinosis Indication Autologous hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy for patients with cystinosis Therapeutic Mechanism Direct transfer of proteins from interstitial macrophages to host cells via long tubular protrusions called tunneling nanotubes, transplantion of autologous HSC modified […]
Pre-clinical development of gene correction therapy of hematopoietic stem cells for SCID-X1
Severe combined immunodeficiency caused by mutations in the IL2RG gene on the x-chromosome (SCID-X1 or “bubble boy disease”) is a devastating genetic disease that results in boys not being able to form an immune system. If they are exposed to the environment for even a short period of time they can get infections that a […]
Gene therapy-corrected autologous hepatocyte-like cells from induced pluripotent stem cells for the treatment of pediatric single enzyme disorders
Liver transplantation (LT) has been used to treat a variety of liver diseases. Within hours after birth, neonates can present with disorders of the urea cycle (UCDs), the critical metabolic liver pathway needed to detoxify waste nitrogen from the diet and cellular turnover. The overall incidence of UCDs is estimated to be 1 in 8200 […]
USP16 controls stem cell number: implications for Down Syndrome
Stem cells are endowed with the ability to self-renew, that means to give rise to other cells with the same potential to regenerate a tissue. Recently, we found a gene that also regulates this mechanism. In addition, expression of high levels of this gene can reduce the number of stem cells in the bone marrow […]
Pluripotent and Somatic Stem Cell Models to Study Inherited Diarrheal Disorders
Our research group at [REDACTED] has had a long-standing interest in understanding the cause of several disorders that result in severe, and often times fatal forms of diarrhea in children. These diarrheal disorders are inherited, and somehow lead to poor absorption of nearly all forms of nutrients, including protein, sugars and fats. Why children with […]
Developing a therapeutic candidate for Canavan disease using induced pluripotent stem cell
Canavan disease is a devastating disease of infants which affects their neural development and leads to mental retardation and early death. It occurs in 1 in 6,400 persons in the U.S. and there is no treatment so far. We propose to generate genetically-repaired and patient-specific stem cells (called iPSCs) from patients’ skin cells, and then […]
Derivation of hESC Lines with Disease Lesions
The inner workings of the nervous system which regulate normal body movements, thought processes, feelings and senses are highly complex. How the nervous system relays and receives this variety of information is little understood, although significant inroads are being made to deduce underlying causes of many forms of neurological disorders. Many forms of retardation are […]
Generation of Pluripotent Cell Lines from Human Embryos
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold significant promise for regenerative medicine. In this application our goal is to derive hESC lines from pre-implantation embryos to generate a source of low passage lines that can be used in research and to develop the procedures required to generate a clinic grade cell-based product. In this application we […]