The Covid-19 Fight: $1 Million Awarded by California Stem Cell Agency for Research

The California stem cell agency this morning awarded $1 million to three researchers for work aimed at battling the coronavirus, which has taken more than 1,500 lives in California and nearly 45,000 nationally.

The grants are the first coronavirus research to be funded by the agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Maria Millan, CEO and president of CIRM, said in a news release,

“We are in the midst of very challenging times where there is not yet an approved treatment for COVID-19. In response to this, CIRM launched and executed an emergency COVID-19 funding program, which was made possible by our board, patient advocates, California scientists, external scientific expert reviewers and our dedicated team."

Millan cited one application in particular.  She said,

“With CIRM funding, the City of Hope COVID-19 Coordination program will tap into CIRM’s network of researchers, physicians, and our Alpha Clinics to deliver this treatment to patients in need.  It will also serve the critical role of gathering important scientific data about the plasma, safety, and clinical data from treated patients.”

The City of Hope application received the most funding in today's round, $749,999. It went to a team led by John Zaia.

The proposed research would involve development of a program in California to identify potential blood plasma donors who could take part in a Covid-19 treatment program. A summary of the reviewers' comments on the Zaia application (Clin2dovid19-117) said,

“This will help develop a new screening tool for the California public health arsenal by identifying what patient and (plasma) donor factors predict clinical benefit.”

The other two awards went to Gay Crooks of UCLA, $150,000, (Disc2covid19-11817) and Brigitte Gomperts, also of UCLA, $149,998 (Disc2covid19-11764).

Crooks is seeking to enhance the ability to generate specialized immune cells in the lab and use them to discover viral antigens that have the highest potentcy for vaccines.

Gomperts is aiming identifying a federally approved lead compound that could be repurposed for Covid-19 infection.

CIRM's out-of-state reviewers had questions or concerns about each proposal, which can be found in the summaries of reviewer comments. Zaia wrote a letter dealing with some of the reviewer comments, noting that the application was prepared on a short timeline and more work had answered some of the key questions.

CIRM directors gave higher prior to plasma applications that had strong plans for "outreach and study participation by under-served and disproportionately affected populations." Zaia's three-page letter devoted full page to an outline of that effort. Other applicants did not submit a letter to the CIRM board.

Nine applications were rejected by reviewers, whose decisions are nearly invariably rubber-stamped by the board. The board continued that longstanding tradition today. 

CIRM has speeded up its normal processes to gather applications and act on them. Winners are expected to begin work 30 days from today. "Deliverables" are expected in six months. 

The applications considered today were among 19 submitted April 7, the first deadline for the $5 million round. The seven not reviewed did not meet the eligibility criteria.  Sixteen more applications were received last Tuesday. The next deadline for applications is May 5.

Directors expect to act in the middle of next month on more applications.