First Appeared Wednesday, 10 October '07

UCSF Scientists Highlighted in NewsHour Stem Cell Story

UCSF scientists were featured on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer yesterday, Oct. 9, in a story on the state of stem cell research in California. The segment examined the impact that the state’s $3 billion stem cell initiative, ushered in by voters in November 2004, has had on the field. While sale of bonds to fund the initiative was delayed by more than two years, the passage of the proposition alone galvanized universities statewide to begin developing major programs. Now that the funding is flowing and two significant rounds of research grants have been issued, the field is gaining momentum.

UCSF initiated a university-wide stem cell program in 2002, and had had a pioneering human embryonic stem cell lab since 1999, but the research enterprise has burgeoned since Proposition 71 in terms of programmatic planning, faculty recruitment and infrastructure, says Arnold Kriegstein, MD, PhD, director of the UCSF Institute for Regeneration Medicine.

The NewsHour segment includes Kriegstein, recent faculty recruit Holger Willenbring, MD; chair of surgery Nancy Ascher, MD; neuroscience graduate student Laura Elias; Deepak Srivastava, MD, director of the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institute for Cardiovascular Disease; and recent faculty recruit Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PHD, also of the Gladstone Institute.

Related Links:

California Takes Lead in Stem Cell Research, Scientist Recruitment
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, October 8, 2007

Embryonic Stem Cell Strategy Advanced with UCSF Finding
UCSF News Release, September 10, 2007

Neural Stem Cell Study Reveals Mechanism that May Play Role in Cancer
UCSF News Release, September 4, 2007

Acclaimed Stem Cell Scientist Joins Gladstone Institutes
UCSF Today, August 22, 2007

Insight into Neural Stem Cells Has Implications for Designing Therapies
UCSF News Release, July 5, 2007

UCSF, Karolinska Institute Scientists Explore Stem Cell Collaborations
UCSF Today, January 26, 2007

UCSF Plays Significant Role in Stem Cell Research
UCSF Today, October 27, 2006

Stem Cell Research Advances Cancer Knowledge
UCSF Today, August 14, 2006

UCSF Institute for Regeneration Medicine

The Gladstone Institutes