The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has approved a pair of $2 million awards to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to advance studies of new treatments for Zika virus infections and the use of stem cell-derived natural killer cells to target ovarian cancer and other malignancies. The Zika virus is linked to increased birth defects, most notably microcephaly – newborns with smaller than expected heads and abnormal brain development.