UC Irvine CIRM Institute

The Stem Cell Research Program will build upon a long history of achievement in regeneration and developmental biology. Program scientists have made key contributions to developing stem cells, understanding how and why cells are lost in aging, understanding how tissues regenerate, and developing methods to make high purity cells from human embryonic stem (hES) cells for treating diseased or damaged tissue. The program consists of basic scientists carrying out research to elucidate the fundamentals of stem cells; translational scientists testing the feasibility of moving basic studies to the clinic; and clinical scientists who study specific diseases and afflicted patients. The new CIRM Institute will help spawn a new paradigm in medicine, namely interdisciplinary disease-focused teams consisting of basic, translational and clinical scientists. Disease-focused teams will guide discoveries from the lab bench to the bedside. The program will focus on neuromotor disorders such as those caused by spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and stroke; neurodegenerative disorders such as ALS (Lou Gerhrig’s disease) and retinal degeneration, and metabolic disorders, especially diabetes. In these areas, stem cell basic research has led to preclinical testing, involvement with biotech companies, and progress towards clinical trials. Refining pipelines for stem cell therapies has been our focus for several years and the Institute will significantly facilitate our ability to move treatments through all phases of development with human therapies as the end goal. Importantly, the Institute will provide federal-funding-free space and core resources to facilitate integration of all phases of the process, from studies of basic stem cell biology, especially hES cells, preclinical testing and clinical trial design. As the hub of our stem cell program, the building design, with its shared open labs, clinic space, distributed interactive spaces, and conference rooms, supports both formal and informal research collaborations and dialogue. Patients will be examined in the building, where all phases of stem cell research intersect. Importantly, the building will provide the space for a major new recruitment of the best and brightest minds, that will allow the stem cell research program to flourish over the next ten years. In addition, the Institute will facilitate the development of new research tools, and the design of stem cell clinical trials with meaningful results, by integrating human performance based measures to identify the most appropriate population for first efficacy-in-humans trials and outcome measures. These tools will be regional and statewide resources. Critically, the new building will allow expansion and improvement of this pipeline by providing the critical resources, space, collegial expertise, and multidisciplinary interactions necessary to move basic research to preclinical models to human therapies, and provide broad education and outreach.