News & Media

August 17, 2013

In the latest rankings by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, UC Santa Barbara has placed second on the annual list of the top 500 major universities in the world in terms of impact in the field of the sciences.

August 12, 2013

Using human pluripotent stem cells and DNA-cutting protein from meningitis bacteria, researchers from UC Santa Barbara, the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Northwestern University have created an efficient way to target and repair defective genes.

Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team’s findings demonstrate that the novel technique is much simpler than previous methods and establishes the groundwork for major advances in regenerative medicine, drug screening, and biomedical research.

Principal investigator James A. Thomson, co-director of biology at UCSB’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering and professor in the campus’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, said the discovery holds many practical applications, including paving a new route for correcting genetic disorders. Thomson is also director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute, serves as the James Kress Professor of Embryonic Stem Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is a John D. MacArthur professor at UW–Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

August 06, 2013

Graduate students Britney Pennington (BMSE) and Lyndsay Leach (MCDB) are the recipients of new fellowships in support of stem cell research in the Clegg lab in the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering. Britney will receive the Richard & Katherine Gee Breaux Fellowship in Vision Research to support her research project aimed at developing novel biomimetic substrates for growth and differentiation of stem cells. Lyndsay, who hails from the state of Vermont, will receive a Vermont Community Foundation Fellowship to investigate the mechanism of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) differentiation and develop protocols to convert stem cells to RPE. Stem cell-derived RPE is a promising candidate for the treatment of macular degeneration.

May 14, 2013

Controlling the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells is the goal of many laboratories, both to study normal human development and to generate cells for transplantation in treating various diseases and conditions. RPE (retinal pigmented epithelial) is one important cell type under investigation as it protects and nourishes the photoreceptors and is vital in maintaining healthy eyesight. UCSB researchers Dave Buchholz, Britney Pennington, Roxanne Croze and Cassidy Hinman, working with Pete Coffey and Dennis Clegg, have discovered a novel method to speed up RPE differentiation.

April 22, 2013

Understanding exactly how stem cells form into specific organs and tissues is the holy grail of regenerative medicine. Now Stem Cell Center Professor Denise Montell has added to that body of knowledge by determining how stem cells produce different types of “daughter” cells in Drosophila (fruit flies). The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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