Respiratory Disease Fact Sheet
CIRM funds many projects seeking to better understand respiratory disease and to translate those discoveries into new therapies.
Description
Severe blockage of the major airway, or trachea, is relatively rare but is severely debilitating and often causes death. Estimates suggest 200 new cases occur in California each year. The blockage most often occurs after injury, treatment for a tumor or following insertion of a breathing tube for other medical procedures. Physicians currently treat these blockages through surgery or by using a stent to hold the airway open. But neither approach produces very good or lasting results. Replacing the damaged trachea with a new one could be a potential cure. A few teams around the world are working with different types of natural and synthetic scaffolds to try to grow new tracheas for transplant using stem cells.
Clinical Stage Programs
University of California, Davis
The team uses a trachea from a cadaver as a scaffold, removing the soft tissue cells and then seeding the remaining scaffold with two types of stem cells from the patient. That construct is grown in a bioreactor until it is ready for transplant in the patient. The team has already used the procedure through the European compassionate use exemption in five dying patients, saving three of their lives. They plan to use this award to do tests in non-human primates to better understand the role of each type of stem cell used to seed the scaffold.
CIRM grants targeting respiratory disorders
| Researcher Name | Institution | Grant Title | Grant Type | Award Amount |
| Paul W Noble | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Innate Immune Regulation of Lung Alveolar Stem Cell Renewal in Mouse and Man | Basic Biology V | $617,662 |
| Dr. Peter C. Belafsky | University of California, Davis | Tissue Engineered Recellularized Laryngotracheal Implants | Disease Team Therapy Development III | $3,181,162 |
| Dr. Brigitte N Gomperts | University of California, Los Angeles | Using human induced pluripotent stem cells to improve our understanding of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis | Tissue Collection for Disease Modeling | $811,231 |
| Dr. Martin Birchall | University of California, Davis | Airways for Children | Disease Team Therapy Planning I | $19,800 |
| Dr. Barry R Stripp | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Epithelial progenitors and the stromal niche as therapeutic targets in lung disease | Research Leadership | $4,841,830 |
| Dr. Brigitte N Gomperts | University of California, Los Angeles | Stem Cells in Lung Cancer | New Faculty II | $2,381,572 |
| Denise Al Alam PhD | Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor – UCLA Medical Center | Modeling and understanding alveolar hypoplasia in Down syndrome using iPSCs-derived alveolar type II cells | Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,524,196 |
| Tien Peng | University of California, San Francisco | Ex vivo fate mapping of human lung stem cell plasticity in fibrotic disease | Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,625,998 |
| Dr. Brigitte N Gomperts | University of California, Los Angeles | Overcoming barriers for airway stem cell gene therapy for Cystic Fibrosis | Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,472,858 |
| Harold A. Chapman | University of California, San Francisco | Modulation of human alveolar stem cells to promote lung regeneration and avoid pulmonary fibrosis | Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,626,001 |
| William van der Touw | Celularity Inc. | A phase I/II study of human placental hematopoietic stem cell derived natural killer cells (CYNK-001) for the treatment of adults with COVID-19 | Clinical Trial Stage Projects | $315,000 |
| Prof. John A. Zaia | City of Hope, Beckman Research Institute | Evaluation and Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody in Convalescent Volunteer Plasma Donors for Potential Therapeutic Use | Clinical Trial Stage Projects | $999,999 |
| Dr. Evan Y. Snyder | Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute | Using hiPSC-derived lung organoids, a clinically-relevant system, to validate & winnow a list of approved drugs that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 cytopathy | Discovery Research Projects | $228,229 |
| Preet M Chaudhary | University of Southern California | Chimeric Antigen Receptor Targeting Spike Glycoprotein of SARS-cov2 | Discovery Research Projects | $248,125 |
| Dr Karen Christman | University of California, San Diego | Pro-healing biomaterial for treating lung inflammation associated with COVID-19 | Discovery Research Projects | $221,758 |
| Dr. Gay Miriam Crooks | University of California, Los Angeles | Stem cell-based rapid identification of SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes and T cell receptors for therapeutic use | Discovery Research Projects | $126,692 |
| Dr. Brigitte N Gomperts | University of California, Los Angeles | Identifying a lead compound for COVID19 using high throughput screening with lung stem cell organoids | Discovery Research Projects | $149,998 |
| Dr. Brigitte N Gomperts | University of California, Los Angeles | Stem Cells for Lung Diseases – Overcoming Barriers to Find New Therapies | Conference – Lung Regenerative Medicine Workshop | $44,548 |
| Marco Quarta | Rubedo Life Sciences Inc. | Pharmacological regenerative treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis targeting the senescent niche of lung progenitor cells. | Quest – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,450,876 |
| Prof James S Hagood | University of California, San Diego | Mesenchymal stem cell extracellular vesicles as therapy for pulmonary fibrosis | Quest – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $0 |
| Dr. Matthew H Porteus | Stanford University | Genome Editing to Correct Cystic Fibrosis Mutations in Airway Stem Cells | Quest – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $1,968,456 |
| Semil P Choksi | University of California, San Francisco | Generation of human airway stem cells by direct transcriptional reprogramming for disease modeling and regeneration | Inception – Discovery Stage Research Projects | $238,408 |
| John Ramunas | Rejuvenation Technologies, Inc. | Telomerase mRNA for short telomere related pulmonary fibrosis | Therapeutic Translational Research Projects | $3,984,942 |
| Dr. Matthew H Porteus | Stanford University | Autologous Gene Corrected Sinus Basal Cells to Treat Serious Cystic Fibrosis Sinus Disease | Late Stage Preclinical Projects | $6,000,000 |
| | | | Total:
$34,079,341.39 |
CIRM respiratory disorders videos
Find Out More:
Stem Cell FAQ | Stem Cell Videos | What We Fund
