REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

The Living Therapeutics Initiative (LTI) brings together UCSF's vast scientific and clinical expertise to accelerate research and quickly advance promising therapies to clinical trials for patients who have few, if any, good treatment options... UCSF has long been at the forefront of cellular therapies. The first chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) were initially described by UCSF's Art Weiss, MD, PhD, over 30 years ago. Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, of UCSF won the Nobel prize in 2012 for his groundbreaking work in reprogramming mature cells to become pluripotent stem cells. These pluripotent stem cells, also called iPSC cells, are foundational technology driving novel cellular therapy development across a range of complex diseases. More recently, our faculty have been leaders in modifying signaling circuits, improving methodologies, and harnessing the power of CRISPR/Cas9 technologies to correct or alter cells for disease treatment. Wendell Lim, PhD, is developing "smarter CAR..