Two UCLA scientists have been awarded a combined $3.2 million grant to support research in the creation and design of new stem cell-based therapies, the university announced Monday.
Drs. James Dunn and Hanna Mikkola, of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, were among 20 scientists nationwide to receive the Tools and Technologies Award from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
Dunn, a professor of bioengineering and surgery, is doing cutting-edge work focusing on assessing the therapeutic potential of skin-derived stem cells to treat neuromuscular gastrointestinal diseases, according to UCLA.
Dunn’s approach is to treat patients with stem cells reprogrammed from their own skin to generate the neural system to correct the intestinal dysfunction. If successful, “the project would likely have a major impact upon the field,” according to CIRM.
Mikkola, an associate professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, “is pioneering new tools that address major bottlenecks that have prevented the generation of blood forming cells in the laboratory for therapeutic use,” according to UCLA.
If successful, the project “could result in unlimited sources of HLA- matched or patient specific blood stem cells that can be used for treating many serious blood diseases, including leukemias and inherited immune-deficiencies or anemias,” according to UCLA.
“We are very grateful for CIRM’s support of these potentially groundbreaking projects intended to overcome significant bottlenecks in driving stem cell therapies to the clinic,” said Owen Witte, director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center.
—City News Service