Our Stem Cell Scholars- from Basic Research to Clinical Translation program just matriculated its 8th year cohort. We consistently have been able to recruit our interns by applying a successful recruitment protocol that ensures a well qualified and diverse pool of students. In each of the past years we have initially informed our potential pool of students as they just started their education at CSUSB. The PI teaches the introductory Cell Biology course to about 200 students and she ensures that they are made very well aware of the CIRM Bridges Program and its potential value to their future careers. The students who are selected for the internship program have had an animal tissue culture techniques course that allows the PI (who teaches the course) to closely evaluate and assess the potential applicants. A large number of the prospective applicants also take a Stem Cell Biology course that has been taught for the past few years by Dr. Nicole Sparks (CIRM Bridges intern year 1). The interns, before they start in their chosen host labs, take two courses: one is a regulatory affairs course (taught by the PI in a condensed six day format) and the other is a human and mammalian ESC course at UC Riverside. Once training completed they were successfully placed in host facilities at Loma Linda :University, UC Riverside and UC Irvine. All interns presented their work at the annual CIRM Bridges meeting and several of the interns also presented their work at the Inland Empire Stem Cell Conference that took place at Western Health Sciences University and also at a research competition on our campus. We also have a vibrant Student Society for Stem Cell Research that has organized many outreach projects within our immediate community. The society organized a bone marrow drive with the support of City of Hope Medical Center and were able to sign up more than 50 students. The student society has also educated our own undergraduates about stem cells and their potential therapy possibilities and on February 28th, 2018 hosted a Rare Diseases Awareness day.
About half of the students matriculated last spring and the rest will be graduating in Spring 2019. We expect this group to have similar successes as those achieved by students from previous cohorts. One of our interns is already half way through her first year as a graduate student at Stanford University. Overall we have a 90% success rate in enabling our students to either get hired as research lab technicians or continue their education in graduate and professional programs. We have research technicians at City of Hope Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Stanford University, Cedars Sinai Hospital, UC Riverside and UC Irvine along with biotech companies such as Kite Pharmaceuticals and Organovos. Our interns have co-authored more than 40 publications as a result of the research they carried out during their internship. A such it is certainly the case that our program has directly and indirectly contributed and strengthened the future of stem cell research in California. Also as many of our sister CSU campuses we draw from a diverse pool of students, more than 70% of our Biology majors are Hispanic and about the same percentage are the first in their family to go to college.