Shu Chien,
University Professor & Chair
Dr. Chien and his colleagues have developed an array system (with thousands of combinations) that allows the rapid determination of the optimum physical and chemical conditions that direct the differentiation of stem cells into specific cell types. The ability to control stem cell differentiation to desired cell types is crucial for the use of human embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine, and hence the results of this study will be valuable for almost all types of stem cell research. More

Shu Chien can be reached at (858) 822-3410 or via UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering Communications, (858) 822-3057. His email is shuchien@ucsd.edu.

Anirvan Ghosh,
Professor of Biology
Ghosh is researching whether forebrain neurons can be generated from human embryonic stem cells. Several neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, are characterized by loss of forebrain neurons. Scientists believe cell replacement might provide a therapeutic strategy if they could generate neurons that had the same properties as the cells that are lost. While scientists have previously generated neurons from embryonic stem cells, Ghosh’s project seeks to specifically generate forebrain neurons from embryonic stem cells and determine if they can make connections with existing neurons in the brain. More

Anirvan Ghosh can be reached at (858) 822-4142 or via UCSD Biological Sciences Communications, (858) 534-7572. His email is aghosh@ucsd.edu.

Lawrence S.B. Goldstein,
Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine; Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCSD School of Medicine
Dr. Goldstein is researching Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive, incurable disease that robs people of their memory and ability to think and reason.  Currently, there is no effective treatment for this disease, and there is a tremendous need to better understand the cellular basis of Alzheimer’s disease so that such treatments can be developed.  Goldstein is studying key genetic clues that come from a rare familiar form of the disease, which suggest that early defects in the physical transport system responsible for long-distance movements of information in neurons can cause neuronal dysfunction.  This failure of the neurons is predicted to initiate a series of events that results in the classic plaques and tangles that characterize the disease.  Goldstein’s lab will use human embryonic stem cells to generate human neuronal models of hereditary Alzheimer’s disease in order to test various hypotheses about the cause of the disease, as well as test new drugs for its treatment. More

Lawrence S.B. Goldstein can be reached at (858) 534-9702 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 543-6163. His email is lgoldstein@ucsd.edu.

Catriona Jamieson,
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Hematologic Malignancies Program
Dr. Jamieson is researching cancer stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Compelling studies suggest that human cancer stem cells (CSC) arise from aberrantly self-renewing, tissue-specific stem or progenitor cells which are responsible for cancer propagation and therapeutic resistance. Human embryonic stem cells can provide a potentially limitless source of tissue-specific stem and progenitor cells in vitro, so represent an ideal model system for generating and characterizing human cancer stem cells. This research harbors tremendous potential for developing life-saving therapy for patients with cancer by providing a platform to rapidly and rationally test new therapies. More

Catriona Jamieson can be reached at (858) 534-7128 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 543-6163. Her email is cjamieson@ucsd.edu.

Martin Marsala,
Professor, Anesthesiology Cancer Symptom Control Program
Dr. Marsala hopes his research with human embryonic stem cells will one day soon allow people who are suffering from spinal ischemic injury to improve their motor function.  Ischemia-induced paraplegia, often combined with spasticity and rigidity of muscles, is a serious complication that sometimes occurs when patients undergo a surgical procedure to repair an aortic aneurysm.  These symptoms also occur in many patients with traumatic spinal injuries, and currently there is no treatment that leads to a permanent improvement in symptoms and ambulatory function.  Marsala’s recent animal studies have demonstrated that spinal transplantation of rat and human neurons leads to significant improvement in motor function.  The CIRM grant will fund additional experiments to characterize the therapeutic potential of human blastocyst-derived neuronal precursors when grafted to areas of spinal ischemic injury. More

Martin Marsala can be reached at (619) 543-5446 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 543-6163; . His e-mail is mmarsala@ucsd.edu.

Cornelis Murre,
Professor of Biology,
Murre is working on a research project to generate long-term multi-potential human hematopoietic progenitor cell lines from human embryonic stem cell cells. If successful, the strategy would create cells that could be used to readily generate specific hematopoietic cell types, such as lymphocytes or dendritic cells, on a large scale for cell-based therapeutic approaches. More

Murre can be reached at (858) 534-8796 or via UCSD Biological Sciences Communications, (858) 534-7572. His email is murre@biomail.ucsd.edu.

Bing Ren,
Assistant Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Dr. Renis working on a research project to provide a foundation for analysis of the mechanisms that control the production of stem cell proteins, which in turn would help in the design of new ways to manipulate the stem cells so they can differentiate toward specified cell types.  The knowledge base resulting from this research will directly support the effort by Ren and other California researchers to investigate the mechanisms of stem cell biology, and design new stem cell therapies. More

BIng Ren can be reached at (858) 822-5766 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 534-6163. His email email is biren@ucsd.edu.

David Traver,
Assistant Professor of Biology
David Traver studies the remarkable zebrafish for new insights into the biology of hematopoietic stem cells. As a CIRM New Faculty Award winner, Dr. Traver will determine the genetic factors necessary to create HSCs from mesoderm by applying the unique advantages of the zebrafish system. Zebrafish embryos are transparent, and he has recently created transgenic animals that possess fluorescent HSCs. His group can therefore combine genetic analyses with the direct imaging of HSC behavior in living embryos to provide an unprecedented view of HSC development. Many of the genetic pathways used to pattern the early embryo are later used to specify and maintain HSCs. He will study these pathways using in vivo developmental and genetic approaches. Novel findings will be subsequently addressed in the murine hematopoietic system to test for conservation amongst vertebrates. New insights regarding the development of HSCs in the vertebrate embryo will ultimately be used to recapitulate HSC formation in vitro using hESCs. Precise control of HSC instruction from mesoderm will be critical for use of ESC-derived blood cells in clinical applications, since HSCs are the cells responsible for the therapeutic benefits of hematopoietic cell transplantation. More

David Traver can be reached via UCSD Biological Sciences Communications, (858) 534-7572. His email is dtraver@ucsd.edu.

Yang Xu,
Associate Professor of Biology
Xu is investigating two major mechanisms that are thought to maintain genetic stability in human embryonic stem cells.  His research is aimed at identifying pathways that promote efficient DNA repair as well as pathways that regulate self-renewing capabilities of these stem cells in the absence and presence of DNA damage.  The goal is to promote efficient self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells with minimum genetic instability – critical for the development of human therapeutics. A major objective of Xu’s proposed research is to improve the genetic manipulation technologies of human embryonic stem cells, including transgenic and gene-targeting technologies, in order to significantly improve scientists’ capability to generate disease-specific human stem cell lines. More

Yang Xu can be reached at (858) 822-1084 or via UCSD Biological Sciences Communications, (858) 534-7572. His e-mail is yangxu@ucsd.edu.

Binhai Zheng,
Assistant Professor of Neurosciences
Zheng is working on a research project to apply genetically modified human embryonic stem cells to study basic functions of human genes in spinal cord development and to develop therapeutic intervention for spinal cord injury. More

Binhai Zheng can be reached at (858) 534-5807 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 534-6163. His e-mail is binhai@ucsd.edu.

Sylvia Evans,
Associate Adjunct Professor of Medicine
Sylvia Evans is researching human embryonic stem cells aimed at developing therapies for heart failure and cardiac pacemaker dysfunction. To repair of human heart, it is important to study human cardiac progenitors and to define pathways required to grow and differentiate them utilizing human cells as a model experimental system. Evans’ lab will create special lines of human embryonic stem cells that become fluorescent when they adopt the cardiac progenitor, heart muscle, or pacemaker state, with the aim of obtaining sufficient numbers of specific cell types for cardiac therapy. More

Evans can be reached at (858) 822-2452 or via UCSD Health Sciences Communications, (619) 534-6163. Her e-mail is syevans@ucsd.edu.