The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and UK Medical Research Council (MRC) are funding a $20 million multi-institutional grant on vision research. UC Santa Barbara will receive $2.5 million for their stem cell-related research. This funding will help translate basic stem cell research to clinical trials on treating macular degeneration.
UCSB Press Release CIRM Press Release Macular Degeneration Video
UC Santa Barbara stem cell researcher Prof. Hyongsok (Tom) Soh has receives the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative R01 Award. These awards are given to fund exceptionally innovative, original research projects that can significantly affect a broad biomedical research area. Prof. Soh was awarded for his research on a novel, high throughput cell sorting technology, developed by his laboratory, that has extensive applications for stem cell research and proteomics research.
Age-related macular degeneration and other eye diseases are possible candidates for future stem cell therapies. Researchers from UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering and Center for the Treatment of Macular Degeneration are collaborating with the Doheny Eye Institute and the London Project to Cure Blindness at the University College London to generate ocular cells from stem cells. A recent article in Nature discusses ongoing efforts to develop stem cell therapies for the eye.
UC Santa Barbara has received a $1.2 million training grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to continue an interdisciplinary training program in stem cell biology and engineering. The three-year grant will make it possible for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students to participate in groundbreaking research in two broad but interrelated areas: the fundamental molecular biology of stem cell proliferation and differentiation, and bioengineering approaches to develop novel biotechnologies for stem cell research.
UC Santa Barbara stem cell researcher Prof. Hyongsok (Tom) Soh has been announced as the winner of the 2009 Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) Award for his presentation on a novel high throughput cell sorting system developed in his laboratory which has applications for stem cell research.
UC Santa Barbara was awarded over half a million dollars from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support an interdisciplinary investigation to develop novel, as well as build upon existing, stem cell tools and technologies that will help provide a foundation for future clinical applications.
UCSB stem cell researchers, working with Minerva Biotechnologies, recently reported that a cleaved form of MUC1, a transmembrane mucin protein aberrantly expressed in most solid human tumors, acts as a growth factor receptor on undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells. Lead author Sherry Hikita and coworkers show that activation of MUC1* stimulates growth of hESC and therefore may prove useful in culture and maintenence of hESC cell lines.
The UCSB Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering Co-Directors and other UCSB stem cell researchers discuss the promise of, as well as problems with, using stem cells for regenerative medicine in this Convergence issue, which also features a separate, in-depth interview with Co-Director Prof. Dennis Clegg.