Year 6

Funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the Shared Research Lab and Stem Cell Techniques Course has continued to be central to all of the activities of the UC Irvine Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. The Shared Research Lab continues to provide state of the art equipment for researchers across the UC Irvine campus and beyond. Over the last year the facility has been used by researchers studying diseases including; Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Paget’s disease, cardiomyopathy, diabetes and stroke. The staff supported by the Shared Research Lab grant also continues to provide invaluable technical expertise for many colleagues with their outstanding practical knowledge of the stem cell field. Activities supported by the Shared Research Lab include tours for the public including high school students, training in use of equipment, maintenance of large pieces of equipment, dissemination of new methods and techniques as well as supporting the research of many laboratories whose work is central to the CIRM mission. The Stem Cell Techniques course also continues to be central to the mission of the center and remains in very high demand. Courses are usually completely booked well ahead of time. This year the course has trained another 44 scientists from three different schools across the UC Irvine campus including the Ayala School of Biological Sciences, the Samueli School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. In addition the course was offered to eight trainees in the Stem Cell Emphasis Track of the Master’s Program in Biotechnology that trains students specifically to enter the biotechnology industry. The Stem Cell Techniques course is also now being taken by scientists interested in developing induced pluripotent stem cells from patient fibroblasts. The grant supported labs work that resulted in investigators at UC Irvine obtaining over $12 million in support of their research. The flow cytometry section of the core supports over 50 investigators on the UC Irvine campus and is growing. These new areas of investigation as well as the ongoing projects indicate the continuing and growing need for support of such resources.