Disease Focus: Neurological Disorders
Human ES cell-derived MGE inhibitory interneuron transplantation for spinal cord injury
Transplantation of neuronal precursors into the central nervous system offers great promise for the treatment of neurological disorders including spinal cord injury (SCI). Among the most significant consequences of SCI are bladder spasticity and neuropathic pain, both of which likely result from a reduction in those spinal inhibitory mechanisms that are essential for normal bladder […]
Molecules to Correct Aberrant RNA Signature in Human Diseased Neurons
Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. The incidence of ALS is two per 100,000 people, and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time. There are no effective therapies of ALS to-date. Recent genetic discoveries have pinpointed mutations that lead […]
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 […]
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, […]
Neural Stem Cell-Based Therapy For Parkinson’s Disease
Ongoing degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the midbrain is the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD), a movement disorder that manifests with tremor, bradykinesia and rigidity. One million Americans live with PD and 60,000 are diagnosed with this disease each year. Although the cost is $25 billion per year in the United States alone, existing […]
hESC-derived NPCs Programmed with MEF2C for Cell Transplantation in Parkinson’s Disease
We proposes to use human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) differentiated into neural progenitor/stem cells (NPCs), but modified by transiently programming the cells with the transcription factor MEF2C to drive them more specifically towards dopaminergic (DA) neurons, representing the cells lost in Parkinson’s disease. We will select Parkinson’s patients that no longer respond to L-DOPA and […]
A CIRM Disease Team to Develop Allopregnanolone for Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is now a nation-wide epidemic and California is at the epicenter of the epidemic. One-tenth of all people in the United States diagnosed with AD live in California. In the US, 5.4 million people have AD and another American develops AD every 69 seconds. No therapeutic strategies exist to prevent or treat […]
Evaluation of Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Escalating Doses of GRNOPC1 in Subacute Spinal Cord Injury
The proposed project is designed to assess the safety and preliminary activity of escalating doses of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells for treatment of spinal cord injury. Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells have two important functions: they produce neurotrophic factors which stimulate the survival and growth of neurons (nerve cells) after injury, and […]
Use of human iPS cells to study spinal muscular atrophy
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is one of the most common autosomal recessive disorders that cause infant mortality. SMA is caused by loss of the Survival of Motor Neuron (SMN) protein, resulting in motor neuron (MN) degeneration in the spinal cord. Although SMN protein plays diverse roles in RNA metabolism and is expressed in all cells, […]