News & Media

Envisioning Novel Approaches for Eye Disease: ‘The New Medicine’ at UC Santa Barbara

October 16, 2012

Amgen founder Bill Bowes gives $5 million to develop stem cell therapy for ocular disease; donation launches EMBODI, new biomedical initiative

By growing new retinal cells to replace those that have malfunctioned, scientists hope to one day create and fuse entire layers of fresh cells –– a synthetic patch akin to a contact lens –– as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the top cause of visual impairment among people over 60.

UCSB Press Release

Seven CIRM Scholarships Awarded

September 26, 2012

Congratulations to the new crop of 7 CIRM Scholars at UC Santa Barbara! After rigorous review, the Steering Committee awarded 3 Postdoctoral Scholarships and 4 Predoctoral Scholarships to support a portfolio of projects that includes investigation of stem cells in model organisms, human pluripotent stem cells, human adult stem cells, cancer stem cells, and bioengineering approaches to stem cell research.

UCSB Ranked Among the Country’s Top 10 Public Universities

September 12, 2012

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Santa Barbara number 10 in its annual listing of the “Top 30 Public National Universities” in the country, and number 41 on its list of the “Best National Universities.”

UCSB Press Release

Fisher Lab Teams Up with UCI to Tackle Blindness

September 06, 2012

Stem Cell Center Professor Steve Fisher and colleagues Geoff Lewis and Gabe Luna have joined forces with UCI Ophthalmologist Henry Klassen to develop a stem cell therapy for Retinis Pigmentosa. Dr. Klassen is Principal Investigator on a new $17.3M “disease team” grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. In addition to UCSB, collaborators include Cedars Sinai and UC Davis. This project will be the second CIRM disease team effort that includes UCSB, both focused on ocular disease.

New Drug Shows Promise for Kidney Disease

August 02, 2012

Scientists in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Weimbs have demonstrated that a new drug is effective in treating a very common genetic disease, polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Over 600,000 people in the U.S., and 12 million worldwide, are affected by PKD, a disease that is characterized by the proliferation of thousands of cysts that eventually debilitate the kidneys, causing kidney failure in half of all patients by the time they reach age 50. The is currently no available treatment for this disease. In collaboration with the Indiana-based biopharmaceutical company Endocyte, Dr. Weimbs’ laboratory developed and tested a new compound called folate-conjugated rapamycin that targets to the kidneys and slows renal cyst growth in a PKD mouse model. Dr. Weimbs is also interested in stem cell-based treatments for kidney disease.

UCSB Press Release

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