SPARK Award Program in Stem Cell Biology for California High School Students

We provided an educational experience for 8 talented high school students who expressed an interest in learning more about stem cell biomedical research. The highlight of the student experience was their ability to learn and contribute to many of the ongoing stem cell focused programs at City of Hope and the Beckman Research Institute. This included bone marrow transplantation studies, leukemia research, HIV/AIDS treatments and cancer immunotherapy focused clinical trials. Our program include introductory lectures about stem cell science as well as stem cell hype. The received individual and group training about how to prepare and present a scientific talk and poster. SPARK students met weekly with Ms. Velinda Liao for various stem cell related activities. The attended weekly lectures from stem cell researchers (both clinical and basic science) in the Los Angeles area as well as from a panel of scientists from Amgen, a leading biotechnology company. Selected students met the speakers for lunch where they could ask additional questions and network. Students participated in a patient centered activity by spending a day in the City of Hope Amani Transfusion center. Here they learned about blood and platelet collection technology and were introduced to the importance of becoming a "stem cell" donor in our large Bone Marrow transplantation program. Several students presented scientific talks during a weekly lunchtime meeting to an audience of their peers. All students presented a poster at our program ending poster session open to all members of the City of Hope family as well as students friends and family. Students attended our annual summer Petrie Bowl barbecue and competition social where they networked with other Eugene and Ruth Roberts summer academy students and attended several other academy social functions. Students went on 3 field trips to the Getty Research Institute (a creative experience), the California museum of Science and the Pacific Aquarium in Long Beach. Students participated in the CIRM social media programs and produced a music video parody shown at the statewide SPARK conference held in Berkeley this year. Exit surveys and personal conversations with students revealed the extremely valuable experience obtained by these budding scientists during their SPARK experience. Many now plan to make stem cell research a focus as they move forward with their planned academic and career development.

We hosted 8 high school students who were selected to participate in the CIRM SPARK program through the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Academy selection process. Students were on campus from May to August, 2017. Their main activity during the summer was to perform hands-on stem cell related research. Each student was assigned to a different stem cell research lab based on their preference where they could fully integrate with the laboratory team. The students completed bench experiments, read primary scientific literature, and attended their respective group lab meetings. Students were closely monitored by Mr. Tuan Tran as well as Dr. Salvaterra to ensure that they were integrated into a safe and productive research environment.

We hosted 8 California high school students selected to participate in the SPARK program through the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Academy selection process. Students were on campus from May to August, 2018. Their main activity during the summer was to perform hands-on stem cell related research. Each student was assigned to a different stem cell research lab based on their preference where they could fully integrate with the laboratory team. The students completed bench experiments, read primary scientific literature, and attended their respective group lab meetings. Students were closely monitored by Ms. Blanquel to ensure that they were integrated into a safe and productive research environment.

Dr. Paul Salvaterra served as the director for the City of Hope CIRM SPARK program. Ms. Ami Bhatt served as the Program Instructor and Ms. Stephanie Patterson served as the Associate Director for the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Academy, under which the CIRM SPARK program is housed. This year, the Roberts Summer Academy selected 8 California high school students to participate in the SPARK program. Students were on campus from June to August 2019. Their main activity during the summer was to perform hands-on stem cell related research. Each student was matched to a stem cell research lab where their mentor and supervisors guided students on how to conduct stem cell research. Students completed bench experiments, read primary scientific literature, and attended group lab meetings. Students were closely monitored by Ms. Bhatt to ensure that they were in a safe and productive research environment.

The 2021 CIRM SPARK program at City of Hope provided seven trainees an opportunity to work in the field of regenerative medicine during a 10-week internship. Each of the trainees, under the guidance of a mentor with expertise in regenerative medicine, was given a project, which required they master the conceptual, technical and ethical skills necessary to explore the topic. Diabetes is a chronic disease afflicting millions of people worldwide. The primary treatment for diabetes involves insulin injections on a regular basis to control metabolism of blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the loss of a special class of cells, the islet cells, which are involved in manufacturing and secreting insulin in response to changes in the level of blood sugar. If an approach to replace the defective islet cells with functional cells could be developed it would represent a major advance in the treatment of diabetes. Toward this goal. a trainee explored the impact of adding media supplemented material from another class of cells, neural crest stem cells (NCSC) , to assess the impact on islet cells grown in vitro in tissue culture. The rationale behind this study is islet cells and NCSCs are found in the pancreas and are thought to support each other. They observed that islet cell viability seemed to improve when grown in media supplemented by NCSCs. This observation may lead to a more detailed analysis of the factors in the NCSC media to determine if specific compounds can be identified to enhance islet cell viability and potentiate the goal of creating cells for use in islet cell transplantation protocols. In a related approach a second trainee explored the possibility of creating populations of islet cells by differentiating a population of intra-pancreatic tissue derived mesenchymal stromal cells, which are found in the pancreas into progenitors of islet cells. If this approach is successful it may provide a renewable source of cells to create islet cells for transplantation treatments. As a first step in this analysis it was necessary to isolate the desired cell populations and confirm that they could be maintained in culture. Following the addition of specific growth factors the cells were evaluated as to whether a specific set of differentiation activating factors could be observed. Preliminary analysis suggests that the cells could be maintained and expanded in tissue culture following isolation from the pancreas. Addition of defined growth factors appears to activate the expression of proteins that are known to participate in the differentiation process. Together these results provide a positive direction to move forward with these studies. Two of the trainees focused on the impact of gastrin, a gastrointestinal peptide, on islet cell proliferation. The trainees wanted to determine whether treatment with gastrin could enhance the proliferation of islet cells as well as other important cells in the pancreas. If so, could treatment with gastrin in a mouse model predisposed to developing diabetes reduce the development of symptoms associated with diabetes. The results of this study suggest that gastrin treatment successfully enhanced the survival of the test animals, preserved the islet cells and other associated cells in the pancreas and reduced insulitis. Taken together these results are very promising and could lead to the development of drugs or treatments for diabetes. Two of the trainees focused on understanding molecular mechanisms controlling development and maturation of -cells. Their work focused on the contribution of -catenin a protein involved in cell-cell adhesion, which is critical for function in vivo. By using a mouse model in which the gene encoding -catenin in the pancreas was deleted, they examined its impact on the formation of functional islets and proper pancreatic architecture. These studies utilized a combination of immunohistochemistry and fluorescence microscopy to explore the impact of deleting the -catenin gene in the pancreas. Through these analyses a reduction in islet size was observed in the mutant as compared to a wild-type pancreas suggesting that -catenin does play a role in islet development. Finally, our last trainee examined non-alcoholoic steatohepatitis (NASH) which is a sever liver disease in an attempt to understand the underlying molecular mechanism which leads to this disease. Using a mouse model fed a specific diet to induce the disease, they were able to identify changes in gene expression of specific genes leading to the development of the disease. They also hypothesized that a gene, AGO1, involved in global gene regulation may be impacted in this model and initiated experiments to explore its role but were unable to complete the analysis. Through this work potential targets have been identified that may lead to the development of drugs or therapies to treat this disease.