Year 5

The Humboldt State University CIRM Bridges program is designed to provide opportunities for HSU students in education and training in stem cell and regenerative medicine fields. In addition, the program also supports activities to educate non-science majors, the general public and those in the local medical community as to recent advances in regenerative medicine and its potential to cure a variety of human ailments, specifically neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The CIRM Bridges program also allowed the HSU Biology department to establish a very rigorous and successful stem cell training program on campus. This has benefited a large number of students and has generated a tremendous interest in the field.

Over the past five years, the CIRM program at HSU has facilitated the stem cell/regenerative medicine training of 39 students in one of the three major research institutions, UC Davis, UCSF or Stanford University. Of these 39 students, 11 were accepted to Ph.D. programs in the stem cell field. Four were accepted to professional programs in medicine. In addition, 3 were selected to MS programs in stem cell/regenerative medicine fields. 19/39 (49%) are employed in a research laboratory or in the biotechnology industry in California. 95% of our 39 students met the objective of the program- each has been employed in the biotech industry/ research labs or has been accepted to higher education in the stem cell/ regenerative medicine field. We attribute the success of the program to the quality of students and the effective design of the program by the CIRM administration.