Author Correction: At the end of the beginning: immunotherapies as living drugs.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Proceedings: Regenerative Medicine for Lung Diseases: A CIRM Workshop Report.

The mission of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is to accelerate treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. In September 2016, CIRM sponsored a workshop held at the University of California, Los Angeles, to discuss regenerative medicine approaches for treatment of lung diseases and to identify the challenges remaining for advancing such treatments to the clinic and market approval. Workshop participants discussed current preclinical and clinical approaches to regenerative medicine in the lung, as well as the biology of lung stem cells and the role of stem cells in the etiology of various lung diseases.

Pluripotent stem cells progressing to the clinic.

Basic experimental stem cell research has opened up the possibility of many diverse clinical applications; however, translation to clinical trials has been restricted to only a few diseases. To broaden this clinical scope, pluripotent stem cell derivatives provide a uniquely scalable source of functional differentiated cells that can potentially repair damaged or diseased tissues to treat a wide spectrum of diseases and injuries. However, gathering sound data on their distribution, longevity, function and mechanisms of action in host tissues is imperative to realizing their clinical benefit.

Challenging Regeneration to Transform Medicine.

Unlabelled: The aging population in the U.S. and other developed countries has led to a large increase in the number of patients suffering from degenerative diseases.

How California Institute for Regenerative Medicine research programs support science and regulatory policy.

The authors discuss the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s focus on state, national, and international regulatory policy issues impacting basic research and translational medicine.

The proceedings of the California Stem Cell Agency.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is a state agency charged with accelerating stem cell research through the dispersal of $3 billion in funds for stem cell research. CIRM is partnering with Stem Cells Translational Medicine to launch the Proceedings of the California Stem Cell Agency, a monthly series of commentaries, articles, interviews, webinars, forums, and concise reviews on a wide range of topics in regenerative medicine.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer in Oregon: expanding the pluripotent space and informing research ethics.

In May, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) announced the successful derivation, by the Mitalipov laboratory, of embryonic stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer. This experiment was recognized as a "formidable technical feat" and potentially a key step toward developing cell-based therapies. The OHSU report is also an example of how a scientific breakthrough can inform research ethics.

Pluripotent stem cells from cloned human embryos: success at long last.

Recently in Cell, Mitalipov and colleagues report an advance that has eluded scientists for over a decade-the successful derivation of embryonic stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT (Tachibana et al., 2013).

The Alpha Stem Cell Clinic: a model for evaluating and delivering stem cell-based therapies.

Cellular therapies require the careful preparation, expansion, characterization, and delivery of cells in a clinical environment. There are major challenges associated with the delivery of cell therapies and high costs that will limit the companies available to fully evaluate their merit in clinical trials, and will handicap their application at the present financial environment. Cells will be manufactured in good manufacturing practice or near-equivalent facilities with prerequisite safety practices in place, and cell delivery systems will be specialized and require well-trained medical and nursing staff, technicians or nurses trained to handle cells once delivered, patient counselors, as well as statisticians and database managers who will oversee the monitoring of patients in relatively long-term follow-up studies.

Human disease modeling with induced pluripotent stem cells.

In the past few years, cellular programming, whereby virtually all human cell types, including those deep within the brain or internal organs, can potentially be produced and propagated indefinitely in culture, has opened the door to a new type of disease modeling. Importantly, many diseases or disease predispositions have genetic components that vary from person to person. Now cells from individuals can be readily reprogrammed to form pluripotent cells, and then directed to differentiate into the lineage and the cell type in which the disease manifests.

Direct conversion in the heart: a simple twist of fate.

Nature advance online publication April 18 2012; doi:; DOI: 10.1038/nature11044 In a recent issue of Nature, Qian et al (2012) show that by injecting adult mouse hearts with a few transcription factors on a retroviral vector, they can switch cardiac fibroblasts—the workhorse supporting cells of the heart—into cardiomyocytes, the beating muscle cells driving the contractile forces that pump blood. When injected into the hearts of mice with induced myocardial infarctions, the treatment reduced the size of the infarct and improved cardiac function to a modest but significant degree.

Stem cell biology: Towards the reality of cell therapeutics.

Although the road to cell therapeutics is rife with uncertainties — scientific, clinical and economic — its success could transform medicine. Five years into its mission, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine is laying a foundation for this new form of medical treatment.