Therapeutic/Technology: Donor cell therapy
Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes for Patients with End Stage Heart Failure
Patients with end-stage heart failure have a 2-year survival rate of only 50% with conventional medical therapy. This dismal survival rate is actually significantly worse than patients with AIDS, liver cirrhosis, stroke, and other comparable debilitating diseases. Currently available therapies for end stage heart failure include drug and device therapies, as well as heart transplantation. […]
Allogeneic Cardiac-Derived Stem Cells for Patients Following a Myocardial Infarction
The proposed research will demonstrate both safety and efficacy of a heart-derived stem cell product in patients who have experienced a heart attack either recently or in the past by conducting a mid-stage clinical trial. A prior early-stage trial showed that the product can repair damaged portions of the heart after a heart attack in […]
Retinal progenitor cells for treatment of retinitis pigmentosa
The targeted disease is retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a severe form of blindness that often runs in families, but other times arises spontaneously from genetic errors. This disease is not overly common, yet represents an attainable near term target for stem cell therapy for a number of reasons: 1) RP destroys the light detecting cells of […]
Restoration of memory in Alzheimer’s disease: a new paradigm using neural stem cell therapy
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, results in profound loss of memory and cognitive function, and ultimately death. In the US, someone develops AD every 69 seconds and there are over 5 million individuals suffering from AD, including approximately 600,000 Californians. Current treatments do not alter the disease course. The absence of effective […]
Neural stem cell transplantation for chronic cervical spinal cord injury
1.3 million Americans suffer chronically from spinal cord injuries (SCI); each year ~15,000 individuals sustain a new injury. For California, this means nearly 147,000 individuals are living with a SCI which can leave otherwise healthy individuals with severe deficits in movement, sensation, and autonomic function. Recovery after SCI is often limited, even after aggressive emergency […]
Heart Repair with Human Tissue Engineered Myocardium
Heart disease is the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in the US. With an estimated 1.5 million new or recurrent myocardial infarctions, the total economic burden on our health care system is enormous. Although conventional pharmacotherapy and surgical interventions often improve cardiac function and quality of life, many patients continue to develop refractory […]
Generation of hepatic cell from placental stem cell for congenital metabolic disorders
Approximately 1 in 1,500 children has a congenital metabolic disorder. These inborn errors of metabolism are caused by deficiencies of different enzymes and result in accumulation of various substances inside cells. These substances affect the function of vital organs, and in many cases are lethal. Transplantation of cells that possess the particular deficient enzyme carries […]
Immune-Matched Neural Stem Cell Transplantation for Pediatric Neurodegenerative Disease
Children with inherited degenerative diseases of the brain will be among the first to benefit from novel approaches based on stem cell therapy (SCT). This assertion is based on a number of medical and experimental observations and precedents including: 1) These diseases currently lack effective therapies and can cause profound mental retardation or lead to […]
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 […]
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 […]