About CDCM
In the Stanford Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine (CDCM), researchers are poised to use cell and gene therapies to treat a plethora of diseases—from common diagnoses such as diabetes and cancer to rare diseases of the brain, blood, skin, immune system, and other organs. We have an opportunity to not only treat but actually cure diseases affecting millions of people worldwide. Outcomes considered science fiction just 10 years ago are now well within reach. The CDCM aims to rapidly translate exploratory and preclinical studies into definitive cures for currently incurable diseases.
Our Mission
To cure patients with currently incurable diseases through the development of innovative cell- and gene-based therapies (CGT).
Our Vision
The realization of definitive and curative therapies for patients around the world will offer new hope for health, improvement in quality of life, and a reduction in health care costs compared to present palliative, but not curative, therapies.
Our Team
The Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine (CDCM) is a joint initiative of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health. It is co-directed by Drs. Maria Grazia Roncarolo, Anthony Oro, and Matthew Porteus. The leadership also includes Fraser Wright, PhD., Director of Technology Innovation for CDCM. The CDCM provides the know-how, organizational and physical infrastructure to support investigator-initiated translational studies on Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) from initial discovery through completion of clinical proof-of-concept trials
The CDCM brings together high-impact research investigators across therapeutic areas with best-in-class translational capabilities and proven leadership to accelerate the development process from the bench to the bedside for cell and gene therapies.
We focus on five platforms: 1: blood stem cell engineering and transplantation; 2: engineering the immune system ; 3: gene editing; 4: tissue regeneration; and 5: in vivo gene therapy. The CDCM has over 20 clinical trials in pipeline, all representing transformative treatments. Some hold promise of a single administration to cure.
Our primary prioritization is based on unmet medical need, rationale, strength of the research data and alignment with strategic priorities of the Center. We believe that the medical needs take priority over market size of the therapy’s indication and therapy's potential financial upside. To achieve these goals, the CDCM focuses on a vertically-integrated, interconnected program of aggressive pre-clinical prioritization, cell product manufacturing facility, clinical trial office, and patient bed space. Our philosophy is that with key opinion leaders embedded into the CDCM combined with the CDCM infrastructure we can rapidly and efficiently bring definitive and curative medicines from discovery through phase I/II proof-of-concept clinical trials.