The University of California Irvine may be a youngster in the world of great universities (having been established as recently as 1965), but the Southern California campus has not wasted any time distinguishing its research and academic programs. In fact, according to a recent ranking by the UK's Times Higher Education, UC Irvine is #1 in the US and #4 in the world among the Times' Top 100 Universities Under 50 Years Old. The new ranking category was added to specifically look at the merits of campuses that were not old enough to compete with prestigious, long-established institutions in areas like alumni support and "reputation" but nonetheless were strong in research and publications. The 100 Under 50 recognizes current and future promise more than past success, and in that respect UCI is unmatched in the US.
Tags: CA, biomedical research, Stem cell research, Southwest, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Irvine, CIRM, UCI, UC Irvine
UC Riverside, once considered by some as the poor cousin to more established UC's, is now a thriving beehive of growth and activity in the areas of biomedicine and life science research. UC Riverside has always been strong in agriculture, business, and engineering; but UC Riverside had lacked the prestige that comes with being a medical training center, until now. With a new medical faculty, a new medical school, new buildings, and new research programs, UC Riverside is on its way to becoming a world class research institute in the medical science field; a title previously reserved for its rich cousin's in Southern and Northern California.
Tags: University of California Riverside, Medical Research, Stem cell research, Southwest, California, Funding, research laboratories, UC Riverside, science research funding
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), California's stem cell agency, has just announced a new round of stem cell research funding totalling more than $69M. $12M of that will go to 5 biomedical scientists at the University of California San Diego, with an additional $4.3M awarded to a researcher at Scripps Institute, and a further $4M to two lab teams at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. That brings the total for UCSD and its affiliate La Jolla research institutes to $17.5M for this third round of CIRM's Early Translational Awards program, which supports projects that are in the initial stages of identifying drugs or cell types that could become disease therapies. UCSD alone received almost twice as much stem cell research funding in this round as any other public university, including UCSF.
Tags: CA, Stem cell research, Southwest, 2012, Scripps, San Diego, SDVS, UC San Diego, La Jolla, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, CIRM, San Diego Biotechnology
The University of California at Riverside is part of the Inland Empire, the geographic area just south and east of the Greater Los Angeles metro area and Orange County. As a member of the UC System, Riverside enjoys the advantage of being a part of the strongest public university system in the United States. Now UCR is making other collaborative ties, this time not statewise but more locally: by teaming up with Loma Linda University and Cal State San Bernardino to pool stem cell laboratory resources. The new regional entity will be known as the Inland Empire Stem Cell Consortium, and it will allow all three schools to qualify for increased federal funding in addition to the other benefits of joining forces.
Tags: University of California Riverside, Medical Research, Stem cell research, Southwest, California, Funding, research laboratories, UC Riverside, science research funding
Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center are not only neighbors along Manhattan's East River Drive, they're research collaborators in the Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative (Tri-SCI). Established in 2005 with a gift from the Starr Foundation, that same charitable organization has just committed another $50M to stem cell research at the three adjacent campuses. In addition to funding researchers and laboratory equipment, Tri-SCI provides support for 3 research core facilities for the derivation, characterization and maintenance of current and new human embryonic stem cell lines.
Tags: Rockefeller University, Northeast, Stem cell research, New York, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, New York City, BRPF, charitable giving
Thanks to a $15M charitable gift from the Helmsley Trust, Rockefeller University is establishing a new research center to focus on digestive diseases: the Center for Basic and Translational Research on Disorders of the Digestive System. With research faculty from 20 Rockefeller labs working in the fields of immunology, microbiology, cancer biology, and metabolic disease, the collaborative center will support the training of Ph.D students, postdoctoral researchers, and physician-scientists, as well as provide seed grants for early phase projects and funding for the purchase of equipment.
Tags: Rockefeller University, Northeast, Medical Research, Stem cell research, New research facilities, Life Science Funding, new science wet labs, New York, biology research, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, New York City, new construction, BRPF, charitable giving
Stem cell research at the University of California Los Angeles' Jules Stein Eye Institute has led to a limited clinical trial that has produced astounding results for two patients with a form of macular degeneration that had progressed to the point of causing near blindness. A short time after receiving stem cell injections the two women began to regain vision, enabling them to function independently in ways they couldn't before the procedure. The story was broadcast on NPR and other media sources with some restraint (it was a small study, with only two patients so far), but obvious excitement (it worked!). On the part of the researchers, the trial procedure held limited expectations for success, in part because the quantity of stem cells they utilized was fairly small. The results were all the more wondrous for coming as a real surprise, not least of all for the patients themselves.
Tags: University of California Los Angeles, Stem cell research, Southwest, California, Los Angeles, UCLA
When the University of California Berkeley (UCB) decided to actively recruit acclaimed neurologist Dr. Zhigang He away from his research position at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital, they knew a critical component of the package they could offer him would be a promise of substantial funding for his stem cell research on the human nervous system in his new lab. To secure this funding, UCB applied to and received a promise of $5.6M in research funding for He from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a statewide initiative supported by taxpayer-approved bonds.
Tags: 2012 Research Funding, University of California Berkeley, Stem cell research, California, University of California, Neuroscience, Funding, UC Berkeley, CIRM
This story not only amazed us but brought home how important the work of researchers and medical equipment technology developers is in real time, right now, for saving the lives of actual people. Read the update below, too. -- 12/23/2011
Tags: Northeast, Stem cell research, Translational Research, Massachusetts, Event, Harvard Medical School, Laboratory Equipment Supplier, Research equipment, transplant success story
Stem cells are remarkable for the promise they hold to regenerate diseased or otherwise compromised organs and tissue in the body. At the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, researchers at the Barshop Institute of Aging and Longevity Studies are particularly focused on how a patient's own stem cells can be used to treat degeneration caused by aging, such as bone loss. Proprietary cells (i.e. ones from your own body) are the best biological match for therapies to treat you, but the problem is that they're too mature and therefore much less effective than young cells in transforming themselves into new and useful parts. Some people have begun to bank cells from birth, such as those from the umbilical cord, for a child's future need. For the rest of us, there is the very real possibility of coaxing our own older stem cells into a more youthful, robust, and potent state by growing them on a younger scaffold.
Tags: Aging, Stem cell research, Texas, Southwest, UT Health Science Center San Antonio