Sanford Stem Cell Institute News

Physician-scientist who discovered a cancer 'kill switch' awarded $2M grant to fuel further space-based research

Leading stem cell biologist recognized for her ground-breaking discovery that low-Earth orbit accelerates cancer’s cloning capacity via ADAR1 gene activation 

LA JOLLA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2024 — Physician-scientist Dr. Catriona Jamieson — director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego — has been awarded a $2 million grant to further her work of developing a cancer “kill switch” in the uniquely stressful environment of outer space, from the International Space Station National Laboratory (ISSNL) and NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences division.

Recipients of the inaugural Igniting Innovation grant were announced Tuesday at the annual International Space Station (ISS) Research and Development Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. The grant funds research proposals that tackle cancer and other disease-related research and technology development on the ISS, benefiting humanity and the U.S. economy. Some projects, like Jamieson’s, were recognized for aligning with the goals of the White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. Five recipients were selected this year.

Cancer is surrounded by what scientists call the “tumor microenvironment,” composed of the various types of cells, molecules and blood vessels that influence it, and vice versa. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), in particular, are capable of turning that niche into one that nurtures malignancies. Even worse, they possess the ability to develop resistance to treatment and self-renew before spreading throughout the body, causing recurrence and metastasis — responsible for 90% of deaths among initial survivors of the disease.  

Using Igniting Innovation grant funds, Jamieson’s team will observe the rate of CSC growth in space — where cell growth occurs more quickly — to test whether blocking a specific enzyme can prevent CSC growth. Her team also intends to investigate why the tumor microenvironment contributes to such a “happy home” for cancer — and how to demolish it with targeted drugs, delivering the one-two punch needed to eradicate the disease.

“Cancer is like an unwanted house guest — it stays because it found an extra couch,” said Jamieson, a world-renowned thought-leader in stem cell biology. “We’re working to discover how it’s able to couch-surf for so long — how to destroy that tumor microenvironment and kick cancer to the curb.”

In low-Earth orbit, the weak pull of gravity — also known as microgravity — places cells under incredible stress and promotes inflammation, causing an accelerated version of a process that resembles aging. When scientists send organoids — miniature versions of cancerous tumors or organs created from the stem cells of consenting patients — to space, each month can provide a preview of several years of disease development and progression, as well as drug efficacy.

The newly announced grant funds will fuel Jamieson’s already impressive track record in space research. In 2021, with the terrestrial battle against cancer progressing far too slowly, Jamieson and her team began researching stem cells and cancer aboard the space station with the help of NASA and industry partners. 

In 2022, her team sent to space the first human tumor organoids — grown from the CSCs of altruistic patient-partners — with bioreactors that detect activation of the cells’ properties in real time. This was accomplished with the assistance of Space Tango, a hardware provider for microgravity research and manufacturing. Axiom Space will be involved in the first phase of Jamieson’s new grant-funded project; Space Tango will be involved in the final two phases.

To date, her stellar team, led by mission specialist Jessica Pham, has completed seven spaceflights with research payloads investigating a variety of stem cell- and cancer-related topics: SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services Mission-24 (CRS-24), CRS-25, CRS-26 and CRS-27 with Space Tango, in addition to private astronaut missions to the space station with Axiom Space. Additional partners have included the JM Foundation and the Sanford Stem Cell Institute’s Integrated Space Stem Cell Orbital Research Center, known as ISSCOR. Further research payloads are slated for launch later this year and beyond.

Jamieson was also honored this week with the prestigious ISSNL 2024 Compelling Results Award in Biology and Medicine, given to select researchers whose labs perform seminal work on the ISS. The award recognizes her discovery that low Earth orbit’s microgravity accelerates stem cell exhaustion in stem cell-niche nanobioreactors — pediatric blood bags that contain stem cells — while allowing cancer proliferation to “take off” by activating the gene ADAR1, which rapidly increases tumor growth.

The award additionally recognized her discovery that rebecsinib — an anti-cancer drug developed by her team — effectively blocks this process, showcasing its potential as an “kill switch” for 20 types of cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer and leukemia. A clinical trial of the drug should launch next year, pending regulatory approval.

With rebecsinib, “we have the ability to stop the growth and spread of cancer to other sites,” Jamieson said. “If cancer can’t clone itself, what’s it going to do? It’s stuck.”

So far, Jamieson’s space-based discoveries and results have convinced her that even more breakthroughs are on the way, to benefit patients who need them most.

“It’s not just unbridled hope,” she said. “It’s practical hope.”

About Dr. Catriona Jamieson

Dr. Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified hematologist with broad clinical expertise in caring for patients with hematologic malignancies. Her research explores the fundamental question of how space alters cancer progression. Her ultimate mission: to discover life-saving therapies for cancer that tackle the root cause of the disease, and to advance therapeutics that enhance stem-cell regeneration.

Jamieson serves as a professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the chief of its Division of Regenerative Medicine; director of the the university’s Sanford Stem Cell Institute; and deputy director of UC San Diego Health’s Moores Cancer Center, as well as co-leader of its Hematologic Malignancies Program. She is also the university’s Sanford Stem Cell Institute Chancellor's Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine.

Aside from publishing more than 100 articles in journals like The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Cancer Discovery, Blood and Cell Stem Cell, her work has been featured in Fortune, The Washington Post, The Hill and Live Science, as well as on CBS News, BBC and NewsNation. She completed both her M.D. and her Ph.D. in microbiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

About the Sanford Stem Cell Institute

The UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute (SSCI) is a global leader in regenerative medicine and a hub for stem cell science and innovation in space. SSCI aims to catalyze critical basic research discoveries, translational advances and clinical progress — terrestrially and in space — to develop and deliver novel therapeutics to patients.