January 30, 2025
Today, UCLA Health reports on three scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research who collectively received $21.8 million in grants from California’s stem cell agency (CIRM) to advance new stem cell-based therapies for serious lifelong ailments. Two of the three research scientists are from our Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics.
Donald Kohn, M.D., a distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, received a $5.6 million grant to advance a one-time gene therapy treatment for alpha thalassemia– an inherited blood disorder that reduces the body’s production of hemoglobin and increases the potential for anemia, bone deformities, severe organ damage and early death.
Roger Hollis, Ph.D., a project scientist in the Kohn lab, received a $5.8 million grant to advance a gene therapy to treat Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder of the nervous system, for which there is currently no cure. The disease causes a universal lack of speech, and impairment of motor function, balance, and sleep.
Read the full story here: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/ucla-scientists-awarded-218-million-cirm-grants-advance