You’re invited to “get real” for stem cell research

by on March 1, 2012 at 8:46 am | 0 Comments
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Bring It! sets the stage for fun and a great cause. Last year's Bring It! Orlando lit up the Hard Rock Live.

Bring It! sets the stage for fun and a great cause. Last year's Bring It! Orlando lit up the Hard Rock Live.

Many people from all walks of life are excited to see where stem cell research will lead us. Will it one day allow us to cure paralysis, regenerate tissue damaged by heart disease, or replace beta cells in diabetics… or all of the above? You may not be a scientist conducting research in a lab like our Stem Cell Research Center, but now is your opportunity to use your unique talents to help pursue these dreams. That is exactly what Sanford-Burnham’s annual fundraiser, Bring It! invites participants to do.

Sanford-Burnham in San Diego will host its fourth annual Bring It! event, in collaboration with HeadNorth, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Activity Center on April 27, 2012. This year’s theme, Get Real for Stem Cell Research, asks teams of enthusiastic supporters to showcase their knowledge of reality T.V. and thirst for fame to dominate the competition.

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Using stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease

by on September 26, 2011 at 7:13 am | 0 Comments
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Neurons derived from embryonic stem cells

Neurons derived from embryonic stem cells

When neurons that make a chemical called dopamine are slowly destroyed, nerve cells in that part of the brain cannot properly send the messages that would normally control muscle function. As the damage gets worse with time, a person experiences tremors and movement becomes difficult. This is Parkinson’s disease.

In short, Parkinson’s patients need more dopamine. Or, better yet, new neurons that produce dopamine on their own. In a paper published August 25 in the journal PLoS ONE, a team led by Dr. Stuart Lipton, director of Sanford-Burnham’s Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center, demonstrates how this therapeutic approach might be possible.

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Join us October 5th for Stem Cell Awareness Day

by on September 23, 2011 at 12:14 pm | 0 Comments
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Left: Brandon Nelson, manager of Sanford-Burnham's Stem Cell Research Center, pulls stem cells out of cryogenic storage (Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott) Right: Cluster of neurons (pink) derived from stem cells.

Left: Brandon Nelson, manager of Sanford-Burnham's Stem Cell Research Center, pulls stem cells out of cryogenic storage (Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott) Right: Cluster of neurons (pink) derived from stem cells.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 is Stem Cell Awareness Day, sponsored by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. To mark the occasion at Sanford-Burnham, we are opening our doors to anyone who wants to learn about the latest in stem cell research and the therapeutic potential stem cells hold for Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, joint diseases, spinal cord injury, diabetes, and more.

  • What: Stem Cell Awareness Day
    Public tours of Sanford-Burnham’s stem cell research facility and drug discovery center
  • When: Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
  • Where: Sanford-Burnham’s La Jolla, California campus
    10901 North Torrey Pines Road
    La Jolla, California 92037
    See map here  and follow event signs to parking. Tours will begin outside Building 7.
  • Who: students, teachers, patients, advocates, press, and other members of the community are invited
  • RSVP: If you plan to attend or have any questions, please contact Heather Buschman at
    hbuschman@sanfordburnham.org     or 858-610-3808.

Attendees will tour our Stem Cell Research Center and meet scientists who are turning stem cells into other cell types that can be used to replace diseased or damaged tissue in heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. Visitors will have the chance to look through a microscope at cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) that are able to beat even in a laboratory dish. We will also take visitors to the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, where stem cells and robots are being used to discover new medicines by modeling diseases in a dish.

Check out more Stem Cell Awareness Day events taking place throughout California, the U.S., and the world or read more about Sanford-Burnham stem cell research on our blog.

New stem cell techniques make more neurons, faster

by on May 20, 2011 at 8:24 am | 1 comment
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Dr. Stuart Lipton

Dr. Stuart Lipton

Stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS—these neurological conditions strip people of their abilities to think, move or both. One of the goals driving regenerative medicine research is to use stem cells to create neural cells to treat these and other neurodegenerative conditions. Two papers recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) bring us measurably closer to this goal.In the first paper, Dr. Stuart Lipton, Professor and Director of the Del E. Web Center for Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research, collaborated with lead authors Dr. Sheng Ding of the Gladstone Institutes and Dr. Kang Zhang of the UC San Diego School of Medicine to create large quantities of self-renewing, neural stem cells from human embryonic stem cells. These cells can become many types of brain cells and showed no increased risk of forming tumors, a problem that has plagued other efforts.

This is a big deal. Stem cells have the enticing potential to heal injuries and treat disease, but it has been difficult to produce enough stable cells for clinical use. The ability to create large quantities of neural stem cells brings us a step closer to treatments.

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Dr. Evan Snyder debates latest stem cell ruling on PBS NewsHour

by on August 25, 2010 at 1:58 pm | 3 Comments
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In 2001, President George W. Bush limited federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells to just 21 federally approved cell lines. Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that removed that restriction, allowing scientists to apply for government funding to work with hundreds of new embryonic stem cell lines. Now, in a surprise announcement this week, a judge from the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. put the brakes on embryonic stem cell research once again by ruling that President Obama’s order violated a budget rider that bars federal funding for research in which an embryo is destroyed.Last night, Dr. Evan Snyder, director of Sanford-Burnham’s program in stem cells and regenerative biology, debated this latest blow on PBS NewsHour, where he said:

“The biology that we are learning and the therapies that we are getting under our control from using these amazingly important cells could change the face of medical care. [Embryonic stem cells] and other stem cells like it have given rise to the entire field called regenerative medicine. In a way, this [ruling] has put a halt to the progress of regenerative medicine, one of the most promising areas of research of this century.”

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On a Stem Cell Tour

by on August 10, 2010 at 2:32 pm | 2 Comments
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A delegation of UK companies from the regenerative medicine industry recently toured Sanford-Burnham’s La Jolla campus. The group, part of the UK Science & Innovation Network, included leaders in the life science sector, business consultants,  business development experts and academic researchers.

On a tour of the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (Prebys Center) and the Stem Cell Research Center, the visitors got a first-hand look at the Institute’s innovative business model.

“We’re here on a mission to learn how stem cell research, drug development and funding works here in the United States and at Sanford-Burnham,” explained Scott Johnstone, CEO of Antoxis, a regenerative medicine company in Scotland.

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Stem cells and “Id”

by on June 11, 2010 at 2:03 pm | 0 Comments
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As the brain develops, stem cells proliferate like crazy. These cells are like young medical students – they haven’t yet chosen a specialty. At some point, a very important switch is thrown and stem cells stop increasing in number and start differentiating into specialized brain cells with defined functions and abilities. Some will become neurons and carry messages that determine what we think or do, while others will become some other type of brain cell that supports or protects neurons. But no matter what they ultimately become, these stem cells have to stop multiplying at some point. Otherwise, too many accumulate and a brain tumor results.What tells stem cells to quit dividing and start differentiating?

Dr. Antonio Iavarone, professor at Columbia University, addressed that question at the June meeting of the Southern California Stem Cell Consortium. Dr. Iavarone was invited by Dr. Evan Snyder, professor at Sanford-Burnham.

In his introduction to Dr. Iavarone’s talk, Dr. Snyder explained that, in addition to fostering collaboration between labs and institutions, “The purpose of these SoCal Stem Cell Consortium meetings is education and data-sharing.”

And Dr. Iavarone had a lot of data to share. He described several ongoing stem cell projects in his lab, including a story about a protein in the brain known as “Id.”

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Stem Cells 101

by on May 20, 2010 at 3:46 pm | 24 Comments
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Stem cells are cells that can both replicate themselves and differentiate into other types of cells. In a developing embryo, pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into all cell types, are told through complex signaling to differentiate into other cells. Embryonic stem cells go through several stages before becoming functional neurons, cardiomyocytes (beating heart cells), pancreatic beta cellsor other types of tissue.

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UC Irvine Opens Stem Cell Research Center

by on May 17, 2010 at 2:10 pm | 0 Comments
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On May 14, UC Irvine opened the first of seven California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)  institutes. The 85,000-square-foot Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center will feature a basic research program to explore new methods to isolate stem cellsand understand their fundamental properties; a drug discovery program to identify and develop stem cell-based therapies; and a regenerative medicine application program to study the efficacy and safety of new therapies and bring them to the clinic. The research will focus on  Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injuries and macular degeneration.San Diego has our own CIRM Institute on the horizon. On March 26, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine held the official groundbreaking ceremony for its new 135,000-square-foot research building on Torrey Pines Mesa. The Consortium, a  collaboration between Sanford-Burnham, the Salk Institute, The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego, was created to combine the talent and technology of these four great research institutions to advance our understanding of stem cell biology and ultimately find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, paralysis and many other conditions. The building is being funded largely through a $30 million gift from T. Denny Sanford and a $43 million grant from CIRM. The facility is expect to open in June 2011.

Regenerative Medicine: Nature’s Do Over

by on April 28, 2010 at 8:43 am | 0 Comments
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Sanford-Burnham’s Dr. Evan Snyder was recently interviewed about his specialty, stem cells and regenerative medicine, by Tom O’Connor with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Snyder is the director of the Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology program at Sanford-Burnham and was recognized as a “Stem Cell Revolutionary” by Forbes.

“Regenerative medicine is the golf equivalent of a mulligan,” said Dr. Snyder. “It’s a do over.”

Continue on to read the entire UNMC interview and learn more about regenerative medicine.