Daniela Bota, MD, PhD
Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, 8 AM PDT

Dr. Daniela Bota is the vice dean for clinical research at the School of Medicine and medical director for the Center for Clinical Research and the Neuro-Oncology program at the University of California in Irvine. Her research is focused on translational research in malignant gliomas.

Her clinical interests include the comprehensive treatment of brain tumor patients and stem cell research. She currently serves as the principal investigator for multiple studies including novel chemotherapy agents (marizomib), cellular immunotherapy studies (ERC1671 and AV-GBM-1), and a phase 2 study of Optune in Anaplastic Astrocytoma.

Her articles have been published in numerous journals, such as the Cancer Research, Neurological Oncology, Cancer, CNS Oncology, and the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.

Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, FAAP
Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, 12:10 PM PDT

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is an award-winning physician, researcher and advocate dedicated to changing the way our society responds to one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of our time: childhood trauma. She was appointed as California’s first-ever Surgeon General by Governor Gavin Newsom in January 2019. Her career has been dedicated to serving vulnerable communities and combating the root causes of health disparities. She is the Founder of the Center for Youth Wellness, an organization leading the effort to advance pediatric medicine, raise public awareness, and transform the way society responds to children exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. She also founded and led the Bay Area Research Consortium on Toxic Stress and Health, to advance scientific screening and treatment of toxic stress.

Dr. Burke Harris’ TED Talk, “How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across the Lifetime” has been viewed more than 7 million times. Her book “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity” was called “indispensable” by The New York Times. She is the recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award presented by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition.

Larry Goldstein, PhD
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, 8 AM PDT

For the last 25 years, Dr. Larry Goldstein has been a faculty member and directed a biomedical research laboratory at UC San Diego. Dr. Goldstein’s lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in movement inside neurons and how these systems are affected in Alzheimer’s Disease. He also founded and directed the UCSD Stem Cell Program and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and is founding scientific director of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, funded largely through CIRM’s facilities program.

In 2020, Dr. Goldstein was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed on U.S. scientists and engineers. Dr. Goldstein plays an active role in science policy advocacy and was instrumental in the establishment of CIRM in 2004. Throughout his career, he has advocated for science before local, state, and national policymakers on issues such as decisions about funding levels, and guidelines and ethical standards for research using stem cells, fetal tissue, and other issues. In 2019, in recognition of his longstanding commitment to policy and public service, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) established the Lawrence Goldstein Science Policy Fellowship program to train more stem cell scientists to be active in public policy discussions.

Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, 8 AM PDT

Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD is a leading physician-scientist in the cancer stem cell biology field. She is a Professor of Medicine, the Koman Family Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, Deputy Director of the Moores Cancer Center and the Director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Jamieson is the Director of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Alpha Stem Cell Clinic at UCSD, which provides infrastructure to accelerate the bench to bedside development and implementation of cancer stem cell targeted and cellular immunotherapy trials for hematologic and other malignancies. Dr. Jamieson discovered malignant reprogramming, RNA hyper-editing and splice isoform switching as mechanisms governing human pre-cancer stem cell generation and cancer stem cell maintenance in selective niches. This pioneering cancer stem cell research has informed the developed of cancer stem cell targeted therapies, including JAK2 and sonic hedgehog inhibitor trials, which resulted in two FDA approvals for myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and leukemia. Dr. Jamieson’s research focuses on developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to obviate initiation, progression and therapeutic resistance of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), MPNs and hematologic malignancies, including secondary acute myeloid leukemia.

Maria Milan, MD
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, 8 AM PDT

Dr. Maria Millan is a physician-scientist who has devoted her career to treating and developing innovative solutions for children and adults with debilitating and life-threatening conditions. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Duke, she obtained her M.D., surgical training and post-doctoral research from Harvard Medical School. After a transplant surgery fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, she began her academic career with a busy pediatric and adult transplant surgery practice focused on technical advancements and optimization of patient outcomes. In parallel, she continued her bench research at Stanford and was promoted within 5 years to associate professor and director of the Pediatric Organ Transplant Program. With early signals that stem cell and regenerative medicine therapy was the new frontier for medicine, she ventured into the private sector in 2006 to join StemCells, Inc. Dr. Millan then joined the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in December 2012 where she led the formation of the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network, a network of medical centers that specialize in rigorous and high-quality clinical trials and top-tier medical care for patients participating in trials. In 2017, Dr. Millan took on the role as president and CEO of CIRM. Under her leadership, CIRM continues to drive the mission of accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs.

Irv Weissman, MD
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, 5 PM PDT

Dr. Weissman is the founding director of the Institute for Stem-Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University (ISCBRM), director of the Stanford Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research, and former director of the Stanford Cancer Center.

His research on hematopoiesis, hematologic malignancies and solid tumors has led to several discoveries and the development of new therapies. These include the isolation and transplantation of pure hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), isolation of hematopoietic progenitors, and the demonstration that, upon transplantation, pure HSCs can regenerate the entire blood and immune system without causing graft vs. host disease. He co-discovered the human HSC and led the first clinical trials involving human stem cell transplantation, that demonstrated beneficial outcomes of transplanted purified, cancer-free HSC for women with metastatic breast-cancer who received high dose chemotherapy.

Weissman helped establish CIRM to facilitate discoveries in the stem-cell field into promising therapies and bringing them to patients in need. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy, and the American Association of Arts and Sciences.