Los Angeles, Mar. 16, 2007 – The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $2.5 million to Gay M. Crooks, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and research-scientist at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, for research in blood formation from stem cells.
The grant announced today is the latest award made to faculty building USC's new stem cell research program. Crooks' study, titled "Regulated Expansion of Lympho-hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells from Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESC)," was highly recommended by CIRM for funding.
"The clinical potential of human embryonic stem cells for transplantation will be realized only when we can develop methods to control how mature cells are produced far more effectively than is currently the case," says Crooks. "As a pediatric bone marrow transplant physician, I am keenly aware of the profound clinical problems that my patients face. Matched stem cells from healthy donors are often not available and the immune system recovers poorly after transplantation."
According to Martin Pera, Ph.D., director of USC's Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (CSCRM), USC stem cell scientists and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles faculty, who hold USC appointments, work closely with each other and in collaboration with Caltech to advance stem cell research. "As part of a unique tri-institutional program, we currently collaborate on a CIRM training program for new stem cell researchers. Additionally, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles faculty serve on the Steering Committee of USC's Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine." Pera is also a professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine.
News of USC's sixth CIRM award announced in recent weeks comes as two more stem cell researchers are headed for the USC campus, continuing the university's aggressive recruitment efforts for the new program. Krzysztof Kobielak, M.D., Ph.D., comes from Rockefeller University with a focus on the microenvironment that controls the stem cells of the hair and skin. Gregor Adams, Ph.D., arriving from Harvard University, brings a focus on regulation of stem cells that produce red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Both researchers are expected to arrive at USC later this spring, bringing the tally of recent stem cell recruits to seven.
"With the addition of these two new faculty members, we are continuing the momentum from earlier CIRM grants and recruitment efforts in advancing our stem cell research capabilities," says Brian Henderson, M.D., dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "We are very pleased with what we have accomplished thus far in growing our program and look forward to future endeavors."
In February, USC researchers received approximately $3.4 million from CIRM. The organization funded 30 Scientific Excellence through Exploration and Development (SEED) grants worth a combined $24 million for scientists new to stem cell research.
In the spring of 2006, USC, along with its partner institutions Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and Caltech, received a three-year, $3.16 million stem cell training grant from CIRM to train graduate students as well as post-doctoral and clinical fellows across 27 departments at USC. That three-year grant has established an innovative training program in stem cell biology and ethics that will include mentored laboratory research, an annual retreat and courses jointly administered and co-taught by faculty of the Keck School, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and Caltech.
Meanwhile, planning is under way for the new Broad Institute building on USC's Health Sciences Campus, which will house the stem cell research center.
CIRM is the organization established when California voters passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to borrow and spend $3 billion over 10 years to support stem cell research.