Program Type: Translation
Phase I study of IM Injection of VEGF Producing MSC for the Treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia
Critical limb ischemia (CLI) represents a significant unmet medical need without any approved medical therapies for patients who fail surgical or angioplasty procedures to restore blood flow to the lower leg. CLI affects 2 million people in the U.S. and is associated with an increased risk of leg amputation and death. Amputation rates in patients […]
MSC engineered to produce BDNF for the treatment of Huntington’s disease
One in every ten thousand people in the USA has Huntington’s disease, and it impacts many more. Multiple generations within a family can inherit the disease, resulting in escalating health care costs and draining family resources. This highly devastating and fatal disease touches all races and socioeconomic levels, and there are currently no cures. Screening […]
Stem Cells Secreting GDNF for the Treatment of ALS
This project aims to use a powerful combined stem cell and gene therapy approach to treat patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease). ALS is a devastating disease for which there is no treatment or cure. Progression from early muscle twitches to complete paralysis and death usually happens within 4 years. Every […]
Recombinant Bispecific Antibody Targeting Cancer Stem Cells for the Therapy of Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most prevalent and aggressive type of brain tumor, and devastating to any patient unfortunate enough to receive its diagnosis. As the most populous state in the nation, more Californians are diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme than any other state. Over the past 20 years, surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy have been utilized […]
A monoclonal antibody that depletes blood stem cells and enables chemotherapy free transplants
Successful stem cell therapy requires replacement of diseased or dysfunctional stem cells with healthy ones. These healthy stem cells can come from either a donor or can be stem cells that are modified by gene therapy techniques. One important step in this process of repair and replacement is to eliminate the existing diseased cells so […]
Anti-Notch1, OMP-52M51: A New Cancer Therapeutic to Reduce CSC Frequency
A important benefit of the tremendous progress in stem cell research has been the recognition that stem cell pathways are frequently re-activated in cancer cells conferring stem cell-like properties on a subset of tumor cells. This understanding is the basis for the emerging field of cancer stem cell (CSC) research. The cancer stem cell paradigm […]
Genetically Engineered Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Vertebral Compression Fractures.
Osteoporosis is an unsolved and highly prevalent health care problem: 10 million Americans suffer from the disease, and an additional 34 million have low bone mass. Roughly half of all women and a fourth of all men older than 50 years will sustain an osteoporosis-related fracture at some time in their lives, and when such […]
Neuroprotection to treat Alzheimer’s: a new paradigm using human central nervous system cells
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an incurable disorder that affects memory, social interaction and the ability to perform everyday activities. In the USA alone, the number of AD patients aged 65 and older has surpassed 5 million and that number may triple by 2050. Annual health care costs have been estimated to exceed 172 billion dollars, […]
Combination therapy to Enhance Antisense Mediated Exon Skipping for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
A drug was identified through the use of muscle stem cells that can enhance the effectiveness of exon skipping by antisense oligonucleotides to the DMD gene to restore dystrophin expression and at least partially correct the defect responsible for loss of muscle function in Duchenne. We propose to test the effectiveness of this drug in […]
Preclinical Development and First-In-Human Testing of GRNCM1 in Advanced Heart Failure
This application seeks to bring to the clinic a new treatment for myocardial disease based on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) derived cardiomyocytes. hESC-cardiomyocytes have the unique potential to address the underlying cause of heart disease by repopulating areas of damaged myocardium (heart tissue) with viable cardiac cells. This therapeutic approach represents a potential breakthrough […]