Patient-Based Therapeutics

Many scientists believed a single, effective treatment for all patients wouldn't be possible, instead focusing on genetic forms of disease, but AcuraStem is showing how it can be done.

News & Events

February 27, 2024

AcuraStem CEO, Sam Alworth, will present on the company's trailblazing approach to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) therapies at the MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference on March 4th.

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April 10, 2023

AcuraStem's CEO, Sam Alworth, is set to present on the company’s latest advances in the development of a PIKFYVE antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutic for diverse forms of FTD (FTD) at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation's (ADDF) Defeating Dementia Symposium on April 13.

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March 20, 2023

Fierce Biotech featured AcuraStem's pioneering work with PIKFYVE inhibitors in a recent article highlighting promising developments in treating both genetic and sporadic forms of ALS. The article discusses two recent studies led by Dr. Justin Ichida's lab at USC and the AcuraStem team that have identified drug candidates with potential to transform the disease course for a larger patient population beyond those with known genetic causes of ALS.

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December 5, 2022

Dr. Wen-Hsuan Chang, AcuraStem’s Head of Target Validation to present at the 33nd International Symposium on ALS/MND being held virtually on December 6-9, 2022. Dr. Chang will detail AcuraStem’s development program leveraging its best-in-class  iNeuroRx® platform, composed of patient-derived disease models that accurately recapitulate UNC13A pathology, to develop novel and potent UNC13A antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) drug candidates. UNC13A is one of the most significant genetic risk factors for ALS and FTD.

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December 6, 2021

AcuraStem will present posters at the 32nd International Symposium on ALS/MND.

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September 18, 2019

One of the compounds in a series under development by AcuraStem for ALS, was administered to a neuronal cell line derived from a patient with CMT2A, and showed improved cell survival resulting in the identification as a promising new, preclinical drug candidate for CMT2A

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January 15, 2019

MDA has awarded an MVP grant totaling $300,000 over two years to AcuraStem to support preclinical development of a novel small molecule therapeutic for ALS.

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December 20, 2018

CMT Research Foundation announced today it has entered into a collaborative research partnership with AcuraStem to test thousands of compounds aimed at producing effective treatments for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

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November 8, 2018

Academy Award-winning actress Renee Zellweger encourages the audience to learn more about AcuraStem’s research work in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the 16th Annual ALS Association Walk to Defeat ALS at Exposition Park in Los Angeles

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April 20, 2018

Dr. Justin K. Ichida was recently profiled by Seema Sharma with Mendeley as a part of their series on stem cells and regenerative medicine. In the interview Dr. Ichida discusses his research, career path, and shares advice for those seeking a transition from postdoctoral to tenure-track.

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February 22, 2018

In a recently published article for The Hollywood Reporter, Acurastem co-founder Dr. Justin Ichida shares a personal account of how famed publicist and ALS patient Nanci Ryder, and her friends in the fight, have helped to accelerate groundbreaking in vitro research being done at his USC-based laboratory (results of which were published in a recent Nature Medicine article).

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February 13, 2018

AcuraStem co-founder Justin Ichida co-authored the groundbreaking research paper "Haploinsufficiency leads to neurodegeneration in C9ORF72 ALS/FTD human induced motor neurons," published in Nature Medicine February 5.

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November 16, 2017

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced that the California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC) committee approved $69 million in tax credits for 90 companies projected to create 6,236 jobs and make $1.2 billion worth of new capital equipment investments across California.

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