News & Media

April 23, 2010

Hyongsok (Tom) Soh, Co-Director of UCSB’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, has been awarded a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue his research combining microfluidics and high-throughput sequencing to accelerate development of aptamer reagents that bind protein targets.

December 03, 2009

Two studies recently published describe the derivation and functional testing of retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC’s). Lead by MCDB professor and CSCBE executive director Dennis Clegg in collaboration with Pete Coffey from the University College London, these studies show that RPE can be derived from iPSC’s and can rescue visual function in a rat model of blindness. These results provide the potential for cell replacement therapy for age-related macular degeneration. The research was published in the October 27th, 2009 issue of the journal Stem Cells and on December 2nd, 2009 in the online open-access journal PLoS One.

October 28, 2009

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.

September 24, 2009

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.

June 11, 2009

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.

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