Program Type: Discovery
Molecular Imaging for Stem Cell Science and Clinical Application
Stem cells offer tremendous potential to treat previously intractable diseases. The clinical translation of these therapies, however, presents unique challenges. One challenge is the absence of robust methods to monitor cell location and fate after delivery to the body. The delivery and biological distribution of stem cells over time can be much less predictable compared […]
MicroRNA Regulation in Stem Cells, Development, and Disease
Pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the remarkable capacity to differentiate into any specialized cell type in the human body and are therefore of potential therapeutic value for neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injury, diabetes, heart disease, and numerous other degenerative diseases. Moreover, several of these same stem cell pathways are hyperactivated in tumorinitiating/ cancer stem […]
Generation of functional cells and organs from iPSCs
The development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology may be the most important advance in stem cell biology for the future of medicine. This technology allows one to generate a patient’s own pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) from skin or blood cells. iPSCs can then be reprogrammed to multiply and produce high quality mature cells […]
Engineering Cardiac Tissue for Regeneration and Drug Development
The ‘valley of death’ in scientific parlance refers to the time period where biomedical discovery in the laboratory fails to result in a cure for a disease. While the last decade has seen extraordinary developments in regenerative biology, the translation to regenerative medicine will require successful negotiation of the ‘valley of death.’ In most cases, […]
Epithelial progenitors and the stromal niche as therapeutic targets in lung disease
Chronic lung disease is an enormous societal and medical problem in California and the nation as a whole, representing the third most likely cause of death. Treatment costs were $389.2 billion in 2011 and are expected to reach $832.9 billion in 2021 according to the Milken Institute. Chronic lung diseases cover a spectrum of disorders […]
Stem Cell Pathologies in Parkinson’s disease as a key to Regenerative Strategies
Protection and cell repair strategies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (“PD”) depend on well-characterized candidate human stem cells that are robust and show promise for generating the neurons of interest following stimulation of inherent brain stem cells or after cell transplantation. These stem cells must also be expandable in the culture dish without […]
Repair and regeneration of the nephron
Kidney function is essential for removing the wastes that result from normal cell function and maintaining water and salt balance in our internal tissues. These actions are carried out by roughly a million nephrons within the kidney that filter all the body’s blood roughly once every 1-2hours. The kidney also regulates other tissues controlling blood […]
Developing a regeneration-based functional restoration treatment for spinal cord injury
One of the most exciting and challenging frontiers in neuroscience and medicine is to repair traumatic injuries to the central nervous system (CNS). Most spinal cord and head injuries result in devastating paralyses, yet very limited clinical intervention is currently available to restore the lost abilities. Traumatic injuries of the spine cause fractures and compression […]
Development of Cellular Therapies for Retinal Disease
The long term goal of our research program is regeneration of the diseased eye. Age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa are leading causes of blindness for which there are no effective treatments for the majority of cases. Loss of vision is due to progressive degeneration of the photoreceptor cells, or loss of cells […]
The role of neural stem cells in cerebellar development, regeneration and tumorigenesis
Stem cells have the remarkable ability to renew themselves and to generate multiple different cell types. This allows them to generate normal tissues during development and to repair tissues following injury, but at the same time, renders them highly susceptible to mutations that can result in cancer. Only by understanding the signals that control growth […]