Featured Articles
Innovation to Medication: The Path to Potential Cures for Autoimmune Diseases
Brian Freed, PhD, says a tiny edit to the body’s ‘immune gene’ could block rheumatoid arthritis and other painful disorders. To make it happen, CU is partnering with a startup.
Freed is founder and executive director of ClinImmune, the CU Anschutz Medical Campus center for clinical immunology. ClinImmune launched in 1997 to facilitate genetic matching for organ and stem cell transplants. More recently, the lab has branched out into cell and gene therapies, making key discoveries about HLA editing.
Armed with that technology, Freed has co-founded RheumaGen, a company where he also is chief science officer. RheumaGen is developing ways to use HLA editing of cells extracted from a patient’s bone marrow to treat the root causes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other autoimmune diseases that afflict millions. Freed hopes to start phase 1 of clinical trials on one of RheumaGen’s therapies in 2026, with more to come.
Developing Cancer Treatments in Space
NASA has awarded the university’s BioServe Space Technologies a three-year grant to study the use of microgravity to grow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). The cells, which primarily come from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow, show the potential to treat serious medical conditions including blood cancers that require bone marrow transplants, fatal blood disorders, severe immune diseases and certain autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Collaborating with BioServe on the research are ClinImmune Cell & Gene Therapy at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, the Mayo Clinic and RheumaGen, a company that grew out of research at CU Anschutz.
A Stem Cell Trial for Diabetic Foot Ulcers
A trial underway on the UCHealth at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is exploring whether cords cut after birth can continue to promote life and health – not in infants, but in adults battling a serious complication of diabetes.
The target is diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs): chronic open sores, usually on the soles, that stubbornly resist healing.
Dr. Brian Freed, professor of Medicine-Allergy/Clinical Immunology at CU, designed a trial that included showing that human mesenchymal stem cells promoted diabetic foot ulcer healing in mouse models.
