Foundation Awards (DISC 0)

Foundation Awards (DISC 0) is sponsored by California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The Foundation Awards Program supports rigorous studies addressing critical basic knowledge gaps in the biology of stem cells and regenerative medicine approaches and to advance stem cell-based tools.

Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects – CIRM Foundation – Discovery Stage Research Projects The mission of California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is to accelerate world class science to deliver transformative regenerative medicine treatments in an equitable manner to a diverse California and world.

The objective of the Discovery Program is to support exploratory research leading to the discovery of novel stem cell technologies to improve patient care. DISC 0: Foundation Awards The Foundation Awards Program supports rigorous studies addressing critical basic knowledge gaps in the biology of stem cells and regenerative medicine approaches and to advance stem cell-based tools.

Projects funded through the Foundation Awards should propose impactful or innovative research that culminates in a discovery or technology that would advance our understanding of the biology of stem or progenitor cells (collectively, “stem cells”) that is relevant to human biology and disease, or advance the application of genetic research that is relevant to human biology and disease and pertains to stem cells and regenerative medicine, or advance the development or use of human stem cells as tools for biomedical innovation, or lead to the greater applicability of regenerative medicine discoveries to communities representing the full spectrum of diversity.

While CIRM intends to issue this Program Announcement for Foundation Awards to broadly re-initiate funding of basic stem cell science and genetic research, future DISC0 Program Announcements will be adjusted to align with collaborative infrastructure needs. To Submit an Application: After logging in, select the tab labeled “Open Programs” .

Under the section labeled “RFAs and Programs Open for Applications” , click on the applicable link to Start a DISC Grant Application . Complete each section of the Application by clicking on the appropriate link and following the posted instructions. Proposal templates can be located and submitted under the “Uploads” section.

To submit your Application, click on the “Done with Application” button. The “Done with Application” button will be enabled when all of the mandatory sections have been completed. Please note that once this has been selected, you will no longer be able to make changes to your Application.

To confirm submission of your Application, select the tab labeled “Your Applications” and check the table under the section labeled “Your Submitted Applications” . You will see your Application number and project title listed once the submission process has been completed.

University of California, San Francisco Dr. Holger F Willenbring Unlocking the regenerative potential of hepatocyte plasticity for diseases of the biliary system Stanford University Dr. Joseph C.

Wu Base Editing, Single-Cell Multiomics, and Cardiac Organoids to Decode Genetic Variants Iris Medicine, Inc. Chi Zhang Global profiling of miRNA-based gene activation to enable a new category of genetic medicine Navega Therapeutics Fernando Aleman Enhancing clinical predictability with novel models of iPSC-derived nociceptor for chronic pain California Institute of Technology Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz High-Throughput Discovery of Embryo Formation Factors Using Stem Cell-Based Human Embryo Models Stanford University Matteo Amitaba Mole’ Dissecting the cellular and molecular interactions between embryo and endometrium during human implantation.

Stanford University Dr. Konstantina Stankovic Identifying and Overcoming Roadblocks to Hearing Restoration Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells University of California, San Diego Dr. Nicole G Coufal Next generation stem cell transplantation approaches for pediatric neurodegenerative disorders University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Kathrin Plath Dr. Genetic and Epigenetic Regulation of XIST and X-chromosome silencing in hiPSCs: Overcoming Barriers in Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Women’s Health University of Southern California Zhongwei Li Development of in vitro and in vivo functional human synthetic kidney organoid (hSKO) model as a platform technology for kidney research University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Hanna Mikkola Unraveling the developmental path from altered hematopoietic stem cells to leukemia in Down syndrome University of California, San Diego Melissa Gymrek Interrogation of tandem repeat variants contributing to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric traits using stem cell models University of California, Irvine Dr. Leslie M Thompson In neurons and beyond: how protein interactions shape the cellular response to Huntington’s Disease University of California, San Francisco Jingjing Li Hearing the Silence: Genome-wide Mapping of Cell-Type-Specific Silencers in the Developing Human Brain University of California, San Diego Jerome Mertens Unraveling nuclear Tau functions using age-equivalent human induced neurons from healthy aging donors and tauopathy patients Scripps Research Institute Giordano Lippi A novel platform to rescue neurodevelopmental disorders caused by haploinsufficiency Stanford University Dr. Joanna Wysocka PhD Mechanisms underlying dosage sensitivity in developmental disorders Stanford University Professor Seung K.

Kim Developing replacement islet cells for diabetes using human stem cells University of California, San Francisco Dr. Tippi C. MacKenzie Harnessing developmental biology to achieve safe and efficient in vivo genome editing of HSCs Gladstone Institutes, J. David Dr. Benoit Bruneau Mechanisms of Transcription Factor Haploinsufficiency in Human Congenital Heart Disease Gladstone Institutes, J.

David Dr. Bruce R. Conklin Allele Prospector: Leveraging human genetic variation to enable therapeutic genome editing in hundreds of disease genes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Peter Chen IFN-γ suppresses AT2 cell regeneration to promote lung fibrosis University of California, Berkeley Dr. Robert Tjian Modeling Rett syndrome neurological disorder with human pluripotent stem cells to develop in cellulo screening platforms.

Stanford University Xiaojie Qiu Mapping and modeling endothelial cell fate decisions for pulmonary arterial hypertension Gladstone Institutes, J. David Dr. Steve M.

Finkbeiner Lewy body dementia, 𝛼-synuclein, and cell-specific mechanisms of neurodegeneration Minutia, Inc. Katy Digovich Immune cloaking of human stem cell-derived insulin-producing cells for curative cell therapy without immunosuppression University of California, San Francisco Tomasz Nowakowski Neuroimmune interactions in the developing human brain University of California, Los Angeles Dr. M.

Carrie Miceli Interrogating Satellite Cell and Myofiber Defects and Repair in Human DMD using Single Nuclei/Single Cell RNA Sequencing of Muscle Resident Cells University of California, San Diego Dr Marianna Alperin Harnessing the rejuvenating capacity of pregnancy-associated factors to restore aged stem cell function Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Ani Deshpande Investigating the SGF29/SAGA complex in regulation of normal and cancer stem cells Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Tyler Mark Pierson Modeling of GATAD2B-associated neurodevelopmental disorder and NuRDopathies: Investigation of cellular & molecular anomalies altering neurodevelopment University of California, Los Angeles Michael F Wells Village-based identification of human risk factors for viral neuropathogenesis City of Hope, Beckman Research Institute Qiong Annabel Wang Utilizing Age-Specific Adipocyte Progenitor Cells for Cell Therapy in Older Patients Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor – UCLA Medical Center Denise Al Alam Modeling and understanding alveolar hypoplasia in Down syndrome using iPSCs-derived alveolar type II cells University of California, San Francisco Faranak Fattahi hPSC-derived enteric ganglioids for cell therapy in gastrointestinal motility disorders University of California, Los Angeles William Lowry Defining the source of dysfunction in monogenic Intellectual Disability Syndrome neurons University of California, Santa Cruz Maximilian Haeussler An interactive data resource for hypothesis testing in stem cell single-cell gene expression and validation of the results with brain organoids University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Kathrin Plath Dr. Characterization and applications of human blastoids for understanding early human embryogenesis University of California, San Francisco Tien Peng Ex vivo fate mapping of human lung stem cell plasticity in fibrotic disease University of California, Los Angeles Dr. Brigitte Gomperts Overcoming barriers for airway stem cell gene therapy for Cystic Fibrosis University of California, San Francisco Erik Ullian Modeling Retinitis Pigmentosa using patient-derived human iPSC organoids University of California, Irvine Albert La Spada Role of ataxin-3 polyadenylation site selection in ALS neuron toxicity and disease pathogenesis University of California, Irvine Dr. Brian J.

Cummings Mapping the spatial and temporal responses of hESC-derived microglia to repeat mild closed head injury to identify therapeutic targets and mechanisms University of California, San Francisco Tomasz Nowakowski Identifying roadblocks to neural stem cell transplantation into human tissues.

Scripps Research Institute Xin Jin Functional genomics to study cellular convergence across ASD risk genes in neurodevelopment University of California, Los Angeles UCLA Gay Miriam Crooks Engineering pluripotent stem cells for universally available, off-the-shelf T cell therapies University of California, San Diego Dr. Alon Goren Establishment of a novel approach to systematically study the dynamic organization of protein complexes in stem cells University of California, San Francisco Dr. Elizabeth Crouch Harnessing vascular stem cells to grow and protect the human brain University of California, Santa Cruz Dr. Camilla Forsberg Determining how age-specific heterogeneity of human hematopoietic stem cells and megakaryocyte progenitors contribute to thrombotic disease upon aging University of California, San Francisco Yin Shen PhD Understanding Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Mechanisms using CRISPRi and Chemical Screens in Human iPSC-Derived Sensory Neurons Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Dmitriy Sheyn The role of WNT and BMP signaling pathways in iPSC to iTenocyte step-wise differentiation for tendon repair Gladstone Institutes, J.

David Julia Kaye Developing a Human Model of Sporadic ALS Using Machine Learning and Robotic Microscopy Greenstone Biosciences, Inc. Paul D Pang Drug Discovery for Dilated Cardiomyopathy using Patient-Derived Human iPSCs Stanford University Dr. Marius Wernig MD, PhD Developing a microglia replacement therapy University of California, San Diego Heidi Cook-Andersen Towards a trophectoderm stem-cell model representing human blastocysts of the highest implantation potential University of California, San Diego Dr. Alexis Komor Development of a stem-cell based approach to interpret global effects of genetic variants contributing to neurodevelopmental disease risk University of California, San Francisco Dr. Robert Blelloch MD, PHD.

Development of universal off-the-shelf iPSC derived dendritic cells for use as patient specific anti-tumor vaccine University of California, Berkeley Dr. Michael P. Rapé Dr. Control of OCT4 abundance and function in human stem cells University of California, San Francisco Harold A.

Chapman Modulation of human alveolar stem cells to promote lung regeneration and avoid pulmonary fibrosis University of California, Los Angeles Dr Melissa Jan Spencer Engineering AAV capsids for transduction of neural and muscle stem cells University of California, San Diego Francesca Soncin Drivers of trophoblast stem/progenitor cell identity in human placenta University of California, Irvine Momoko Watanabe Generation of cortical organoids with tunable areal identities by spatial engineering of morphogens