On May 30, 2024, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) announced it had awarded $53 million to fund various projects from its Clinical and Translation programs aimed at preventing heart failure to the advancement of cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease and the targeting of numerous cancers. 

Among the awards were two preclinical projects in the Agency’s clinical program, which provides funding for eligible stem cell and gene therapy-based projects through all stages of clinical trial development.    

One of two preclinical awarded was a $6 million grant to Dr. Matthew Porteus and his team at Stanford University to develop an innovative stem cell-based gene correction therapy for chronic sinusitis in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients.   

CIRM also provided a $6 million award to Arjun Deb, MD, of UCLA to advance the development of a therapeutic humanized monoclonal antibody for the treatment of myocardial infarction (also known as a heart attack) and subsequent heart failure. 

The goal of CIRM’s Translational program is to support promising stem cell-based or gene projects that accelerate completion of translational stage activities necessary for advancement to clinical study or broad end use. Those can include therapeutic candidates, diagnostic methods or devices, and novel tools that address critical bottlenecks in research.