The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved investing more than $3.8 million in a Phase 1 clinical trial to create a stem cell-based therapy for urethral stricture disease led by Wake Forest University Health Sciences and UCSF Urology, which will serve as the main clinical site. UCSF Urology is a leading center internationally for the treatment and study of urethral stricture disease (https://expertscape.com/ex/urethral+stricture).
“The study involves taking epithelial and smooth muscle cell tissue from the bladder and integrating them with a synthetic tubular scaffold which will be implanted inside the urethra” said UCSF Urologist and site principal investigator Dr. Benjamin Breyer. “This line of study has great future potential for application in the urethra and elsewhere in the urinary tract and in those with a wide variety of urological disorders.”
“While not immediately life-threatening, urethral strictures lead to multiple health complications that impair quality of life and predispose to kidney dysfunction,” says Dr. Maria T. Millan, President and CEO of CIRM. “Developing an effective and durable treatment would significantly impact lives and has the potential to decrease the cumulative healthcare costs of treating recurrent kidney stones, infections and downstream kidney complications, especially of long-segment urethral strictures.
Read the CIRM press release here: https://www.cirm.ca.gov/about-cirm/newsroom/press-releases/07282022/cirm-board-approves-funding-clinical-trial-targeting