Lindsay Bailey-Steinitz has won Best Poster at the Ocular Diseases and Drug Discovery conference in San Diego. The conference brings together leading scientists, researchers, and experts to discuss and collaborate on combating and curing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), dry eye, glaucoma, diabetic macular edema (DME), and other ocular diseases. Lindsay's poster, "ECIS as a Platform for Uncovering AMD Therapeutics", focuses on her research in the Coffey Lab on wet age-related macular degeneration.

On Sunday, September 10, more than 100 supporters of the Santa Barbara Braille Institute gathered on its lovely campus for the 3rd annual Festival of Flavors. The Santa Barbara Braille Institute Auxiliary hosts this fundraiser to support the multitude of free classes, programs and services at the institute for the blind and visually impaired.

Three Solvang School students won awards and earned cash at the recent Santa Barbara County Science Fair, and one was chosen to represent the county at the California State Science Fair.

Five Solvang middle school students — Fernanda Barbosa, Andrew Bunke, Audrey Fuette, Tessa Haws and Harry Mullin — presented their work March 10 at the County Science Fair in Corwin Pavilion at UC Santa Barbara.

The cover story of the September issue of National Geographic on treating blindness featured two research projects underway at the UCSB Stem Cell Center. First mentioned was the California Project to Cure Blindness, a joint effort between USC, UCSB, Caltech, City of Hope, University College London and Regenerative Patch Technologies, where researchers are using embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigmented epithelial cells on a scaffold to treat the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (Clegg and Coffey labs). Second, the article described work led by Henry Klassen at UC Irvine to treat retinitis pigmentosa with retinal stem cells. Both of these stem cell therapies are currently in clinical trials for ocular disease.

“Anti-Aging Medicine” Sounds Vaguely Disreputable, So Serious Scientists Prefer to Speak of “Regenerative Medicine”.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and genome-editing techniques have facilitated manipulation of living organisms in innumerable ways at the cellular and genetic levels, respectively, and will underpin many aspects of regenerative medicine as it continues to evolve. An attitudinal change is also occurring. Experts in regenerative medicine have increasingly begun to embrace the view that comprehensively repairing the damage of aging is a practical and feasible goal.

Dr. Dennis Clegg recently visited NIH and gave a summary of his efforts with the California Project to Cure Blindness to develop a stem cell-based therapy for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a major cause of blindness in the U.S. His talk was the second installment in the National Eye Institute Audacious Goals Initiative Seminar Series in Neuroregeneration.

More than seven million people in the US struggle to see. While most are not completely blind they have difficulty with, or simply can’t do, daily tasks most of us take for granted. CIRM has committed more than $100 million to 17 projects trying to solve this unmet medical need. Two of those projects have begun clinical trials testing cell therapies in patients. 

Wednesday, October 14th 2015 marks Stem Cell Awareness Day, which brings together organizations and individuals around the world working to ensure that we realize the benefits of one of the most promising fields of science in our time. The day is a unique global opportunity to foster greater understanding about stem cell research and the range of potential applications for disease and injury. UC Santa Barbara researchers participated in the event with local outreach talks in Santa Barbara at the Vista Del Monte Retirement Community, the annual meeting of the UCSB Board of Trustees, and at San Marcos High School. In addition, our latest research was presented at scientific meetings, including the Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa, the American Association of Blood Banks, and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine in London. UC Santa Barbara is at the forefront of research in stem cell biology and engineering, with advances being made in understanding molecular mechanisms of stem cell biology, the discoveries of novel biotechnologies, and translation of cellular therapies for ocular disease. For information, please see www.stemcell.ucsb.edu.

Researchers from UC Santa Barbara, the University of Wisonsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison have developed a screening system for predicting developmental neurotoxicity — damage caused to nervous tissue by toxic substances — using stem cells to model features of the developing human brain. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. One possible use in the application of the research involves reducing the number of drug failures in clinical trials and offering a cost-effective approach for assessing chemical safety. 

A clinical trial using stem cells to treat people who have lost their vision due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP) has treated its first four patients at UC Irvine. CIRM, California’s stem cell agency, is funding the FDA-approved trial, which is led by Dr. Henry Klassen of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute in Irvine. Research by Steve Fisher, Geoff Lewis and colleagues in the UC Santa Barbara Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering in the Neuroscience Research Institute contributed to the pre-clinical work that led to this first ever stem cell trial for RP. The four patients are legally blind because of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease that slowly destroys cells in the retina, the light sensitive area in the back of the eye that is essential for vision. The patients were each given a single injection of retinal progenitor cells. It’s hoped these cells will help protect the photoreceptors in the retina that have not yet been damaged by RP, and even revive those that have been damaged but not yet destroyed by the disease.Worldwide almost 1.5 million people suffer from RP. It is the leading cause of inherited blindness in the developed world. There is no cure and no effective treatment. To learn more about the study or to enroll contact the UCLA-UCI Alpha Stem Cell Clinic at 949-824-3990 or by email at stemcell@uci.edu. Or for more information go here: https://www.stemcell.ucla.edu/cirm-ucla-uci-alpha-stem-cell-clinic

Stem cell pioneer James A. Thomson and his research team have discovered a way to impose an immortal-like state on mouse progenitor cells responsible for producing blood and vascular tissue. By regulating a small number of genes, the cells became “trapped” in a self-renewing state and capable of producing functional endothelial, blood and smooth muscle cells. The findings, to be published in the Dec. 9, 2014, issue of Stem Cell Reports now appear online, point to a potential new approach to developing cells in the lab environment for use in drug screening and therapies and as a basic research tool.

By growing new retinal cells to replace those that have malfunctioned, scientists hope to one day create and fuse entire layers of fresh cells –– a synthetic patch akin to a contact lens –– as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the top cause of visual impairment among people over 60.

Roxanne Croze, graduate student researcher in the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, was chosen as one of nineteen top student researchers in the U.S. and will convene with Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.

As one of her faculty references states, “In my 25 years at UCSB, she ranks at the very top in terms of teaching ability and enthusiasm for science education and teaching. She is also an intelligent and capable researcher with a strong and passionate commitment to science, and she is already making an impact on the field. She is one of a kind!”