The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the world’s largest institutes dedicated to regenerative medicine, granted over $22.5 million to nine projects through the Quest Awards Program, which fosters the discovery of innovative stem cell-based and gene therapy technologies.
One of these projects was award to Qizhi Tang, PhD, for her project "Genome editing of human Tregs to enable combinational tolerogenic therapy with T cell targeted biologics for T1D."
Dr. Tang's innovative work is reflective of CIRM's evolving mission. “The regenerative medicine landscape has evolved dramatically since CIRM’s inception," said Jonathan Thomas, PhD, JD, President and CEO of CIRM. "With advances in cell and gene therapies, including promising breakthroughs for both rare and prevalent diseases, we must ensure our focus is meeting the demands of this rapidly expanding field."
The work proposed in the awarded grant of over $2M is built on UCSFs decades-long efforts in advancing immunotherapy for T1D, aiming to create novel combinatory therapy for more effective and durable control of the disease.