UC Santa Cruz

IBSC directors bring in nearly $12 million to fund the future of bimolecular research at UC Santa Cruz

/ Katie Sharify / 1 Comment

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Left to right: Lindsay Hinck and Camilla Forsberg

UC Santa Cruz professors Camilla Forsberg and Lindsay Hinck are not only pushing boundaries in their field as the female-led program directors of the Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells (IBSC), they’ve also been looking for ways to enhance the environment within the academic research infrastructure.

“We really wanted to make an effort to elevate everyone’s capacity for doing more research,” explains Forsberg. It was this drive that led the researchers to focus on bringing in grants to support students at different stages of their education to participate in research training programs.

So far, Fosberg and Hinck’s efforts have provided nearly $12 million in extramural funding for predoctoral and undergraduate training programs. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which provides graduate and postdoctoral funding, is one of the five funding institutions that have supported IBSC. This funding will shape the future of the IBSC, which brings together more than 30 laboratories across the Engineering and Physical and Biological Sciences divisions, as well as the Science & Justice Research Center.

“We didn’t set out to have five training programs, but then there were more opportunities, so we kept pitching our basic mentoring philosophies to different funders,” Forsberg said. “Now we have five different programs. I guess we found a secret sauce that made our funders excited.”

Forsberg and Hinck’s secret sauce is perhaps in part due to their devotion to forming strong peer connections amongst a group of talented graduate and postdoctoral researchers. The programs aim to connect cohorts of trainees who can interact and network through the IBSC in order to form a peer support ecosystem.

Additionally, IBSC strives to build cohorts that welcome and foster diverse perspectives as they will host an upcoming pilot program that aims to demystify the lengthy path from academia to a research career.

With their lastest $1 million training grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Forsberg and Hinck hope to provide support for postdoctoral scholars interested in the biotech industry. So far, biotech companies Jasper Therapeutics and Roche have joined the collaborative effort with IBSC to create shadowing opportunities for trainees to learn outside of the academic environment.

Furthermore, pre and postdoctoral trainees supported by these training grants can be hosted by several labs in the IBSC and beyond.

“The key thing about all these training programs is that they implement new ideas about structured graduate and postdoctoral training,” Hinck said. “While getting a training grant position is competitive, we try to make the structured training provided by the grants widely available so that all graduate students and postdoctoral scholars at UCSC can increase their skill sets. The environment that’s built around these training programs elevates opportunities for everyone.”

Read the full release here.

Creating a diverse group of future scientists

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment
Students in CIRM’s Bridges program showing posters of their work

If you have read the headlines lately, you’ll know that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on the shipping industry. Container vessels are forced to sit out at anchor for a week or more because there just aren’t enough dock workers to unload the boats. It’s a simple rule of economics, you can have all the demand you want but if you don’t have the people to help deliver on the supply side, you are in trouble.

The same is true in regenerative medicine. The field is expanding rapidly and that’s creating a rising demand for skilled workers to help keep up. That doesn’t just mean scientists, but also technicians and other skilled individuals who can ensure that our ability to manufacture and deliver these new therapies is not slowed down.

That’s one of the reasons why CIRM has been a big supporter of training programs ever since we were created by the voters of California when they approved Proposition 71. And now we are kick-starting those programs again to ensure the field has all the talented workers it needs.

Last week the CIRM Board approved 18 programs, investing more than $86 million, as part of the Agency’s Research Training Grants program. The goal of the program is to create a diverse group of scientists with the knowledge and skill to lead effective stem cell research programs.

The awards provide up to $5 million per institution, for a maximum of 20 institutions, over five years, to support the training of predoctoral graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and/or clinical trainees.

This is a revival of an earlier Research Training program that ran from 2006-2016 and trained 940 “CIRM Scholars” including:

• 321 PhD students
• 453 Postdocs
• 166 MDs

These grants went to academic institutions from UC Davis in Sacramento to UC San Diego down south and everywhere in-between. A 2013 survey of the students found that most went on to careers in the industry.

  • 56% continued to further training
  • 14% advanced to an academic research faculty position
  • 10.5% advanced to a biotech/industry position
  • 12% advanced to a non-research position such as teaching, medical practice, or foundation/government work

The Research Training Grants go to:

AWARDINSTITUTIONTITLEAMOUNT
EDUC4-12751Cedars-SinaiCIRM Training Program in Translational Regenerative Medicine    $4,999,333
EDUC4-12752UC RiversideTRANSCEND – Training Program to Advance Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Research, Education, and Workforce Diversity    $4,993,115
EDUC4-12753UC Los AngelesUCLA Training Program in Stem Cell Biology    $5 million
EDUC4-12756University of Southern CaliforniaTraining Program Bridging Stem Cell Research with Clinical Applications in Regenerative Medicine    $5 million
EDUC4-12759UC Santa CruzCIRM Training Program in Systems Biology of Stem Cells    $4,913,271
EDUC4-12766Gladstone Inst.CIRM Regenerative Medicine Research Training Program    $5 million
EDUC4-12772City of HopeResearch Training Program in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine    $4,860,989
EDUC4-12782StanfordCIRM Scholar Training Program    $4,974,073
EDUC4-12790UC BerkeleyTraining the Next Generation of Biologists and Engineers for Regenerative Medicine    $4,954,238
EDUC4-12792UC DavisCIRM Cell and Gene Therapy Training Program 2.0    $4,966,300
EDUC4-12802Children’s Hospital of Los AngelesCIRM Training Program for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research    $4,999,500
EDUC4-12804UC San DiegoInterdisciplinary Stem Cell Training Grant at UCSD III    $4,992,446
EDUC4-12811ScrippsTraining Scholars in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research    $4,931,353
EDUC4-12812UC San FranciscoScholars Research Training Program in Regenerative Medicine, Gene Therapy, and Stem Cell Research    $5 million
EDUC4-12813Sanford BurnhamA Multidisciplinary Stem Cell Training Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute, A Critical Component of the La Jolla Mesa Educational Network    $4,915,671  
EDUC4-12821UC Santa BarbaraCIRM Training Program in Stem Cell Biology and Engineering    $1,924,497
EDUC4-12822UC IrvineCIRM Scholars Comprehensive Research Training Program  $5 million
EDUC4-12837Lundquist Institute for Biomedical InnovationStem Cell Training Program at the Lundquist Institute    $4,999,999

These are not the only awards we make to support training the next generation of scientists. We also have our SPARK and Bridges to Stem Cell Research programs. The SPARK awards are for high school students, and the Bridges program for graduate or Master’s level students.

CIRM & CZI & MOU for COVID-19

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

Too many acronyms? Not to worry. It is all perfectly clear in the news release we just sent out about this.

A new collaboration between the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) will advance scientific efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by collaborating on disseminating single-cell research that scientists can use to better understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus and help develop treatments and cures.

CIRM and CZI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will combine CIRM’s infrastructure and data collection and analysis tools with CZI’s technology expertise. It will enable CIRM researchers studying COVID-19 to easily share their data with the broader research community via CZI’s cellxgene tool, which allows scientists to explore and visualize measurements of how the virus impacts cell function at a single-cell level. CZI recently launched a new version of cellxgene and is supporting the single-cell biology community by sharing COVID-19 data, compiled by the global Human Cell Atlas effort and other related efforts, in an interactive and scalable way.

“We are pleased to be able to enter into this partnership with CZI,” said Dr. Maria T. Millan, CIRM’s President & CEO. “This MOU will allow us to leverage our respective investments in genomics science in the fight against COVID-19. CIRM has a long-standing commitment to generation and sharing of sequencing and genomic data from a wide variety of projects. That’s why we created the CIRM genomics award and invested in the Stem Cell Hub at the University of California, Santa Cruz, which will process the large complex datasets in this collaboration.”  

“Quickly sharing scientific data about COVID-19 is vital for researchers to build on each other’s work and accelerate progress towards understanding and treating a complex disease,” said CZI Single-Cell Biology Program Officer Jonah Cool. “We’re excited to partner with CIRM to help more researchers efficiently share and analyze single-cell data through CZI’s cellxgene platform.”

In March 2020, the CIRM Board approved $5 million in emergency funding to target COVID-19. To date, CIRM has funded 17 projects, some of which are studying how the SARS-CoV-2 virus impacts cell function at the single-cell level.

Three of CIRM’s early-stage COVID-19 research projects will plan to participate in this collaborative partnership by sharing data and analysis on cellxgene.   

  • Dr. Evan Snyder and his team at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute are using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a type of stem cell that can be created by reprogramming skin or blood cells, to create lung organoids. These lung organoids will then be infected with the novel coronavirus in order to test two drug candidates for treating the virus.
  • Dr. Brigitte Gomperts at UCLA is studying a lung organoid model made from human stem cells in order to identify drugs that can reduce the number of infected cells and prevent damage in the lungs of patients with COVID-19.
  • Dr. Justin Ichida at the University of Southern California is trying to determine if a drug called a kinase inhibitor can protect stem cells in the lungs and other organs, which the novel coronavirus selectively infects and kills.

“Cumulative data into how SARS-CoV-2 affects people is so powerful to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stephen Lin, PhD, the Senior CIRM Science Officer who helped develop the MOU. “We are grateful that the researchers are committed to sharing their genomic data with other researchers to help advance the field and improve our understanding of the virus.”

CZI also supports five distinct projects studying how COVID-19 progresses in patients at the level of individual cells and tissues. This work will generate some of the first single-cell biology datasets from donors infected by SARS-CoV-2 and provide critical insights into how the virus infects humans, which cell types are involved, and how the disease progresses. All data generated by these grants will quickly be made available to the scientific community via open access datasets and portals, including CZI’s cellxgene tool.

How a Soviet space craft proved an inspiration for CIRM’s latest Board member

/ Kevin McCormack / Leave a comment

blumenthal

George Blumenthal’s life changed on October 4, 1957. That’s the day the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial earth satellite. The beach ball-sized satellite marked the start of the space race between the US and the USSR. It also marked the start of Blumenthal’s fascination with science and space.

Fast forward almost 60 years and Dr. Blumenthal, now a world-renowned professor of astronomy and astrophysics and the Chancellor of U.C. Santa Cruz, has been named as the newest member of the CIRM governing Board.

California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom made the appointment calling Dr. Blumenthal a world-class scientist and forward-looking administrator:

“As a Regent of the University of California, I have been impressed by his deep commitment to expanding educational opportunity for all California students and enhancing research opportunities. I am confident the Chancellor’s vision and leadership will be of immense benefit to the CIRM Board.”

In a news release Dr. Blumenthal said he is looking forward to being part of CIRM:

“The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing outstanding work, and I am delighted to join the Board. CIRM support has advanced stem cell research at UC Santa Cruz and across the state. Public support for this work remains strong, and I look forward to playing a role in securing the future of the institute.”

sputnik

Sputnik

But getting back to Sputnik for a moment. In an article in Valley Vision, the newsletter for Joint Venture Silicon Valley, Dr. Blumenthal said the launch of Sputnik helped fuel his interest in science in general and space in particular.

“Sputnik had a profound effect on American science and it certainly played a part in my interest in space and physics all through high school, college and graduate school,” says Blumenthal. “I intended to become a particle physicist, but after a year in grad school I became more interested in space and astronomy, so I changed from studying the smallest things in the universe to the biggest, like galaxies.”

Dr. Blumenthal became the first in his family to graduate from college. He then went on to enjoy a successful career as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics. His research helped deepen our understanding of galaxies and the cosmos, including the role that dark matter plays in the formation of the structure of the universe. He became the chair of the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), which manages the W. M. Keck Observatory near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He also co-authored two of the leading astronomy textbooks, 21st Century Astronomy and Understanding our Universe.

Blumenthal joined the faculty of UC Santa Cruz in 1972 and was named chancellor in 2007. Throughout his career he has been a champion of diversity both at UCSC, where he created the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, and throughout the U.C. system, where he served as a member of the Regents’ Study Group on Diversity.

Jonathan Thomas, Chair of the CIRM Board, welcomed Dr. Blumenthal, saying:

“We are honored to have someone with Dr. Blumenthal’s experience and expertise join the Board. As Chancellor at UCSC he has demonstrated a clear commitment to advancing world-class research and earned a reputation as a bold and visionary leader. We look forward to seeing those qualities in action to help advance CIRM’s mission.”

At CIRM we are shooting for the stars, aiming as high as we can to help accelerate stem cell treatements to patients with unmet medical needs. It will be nice having Dr. Blumenthal on Board to help guide us.

Stem cells and prostate cancer are more similar than we thought

/ Karen Ring / 2 Comments

Prostate cancer is a scary word for men, no matter how macho or healthy they are. These days however, prostate cancer is no longer a death sentence for them. In fact, many men survive this disease if diagnosed early. However, for those unlucky ones who have more advanced stages of prostate cancer (where the tumor has metastasized and spread to other organs), the typical treatments used to fight the tumors don’t work effectively because advanced tumors become resistant to these therapies.

To help those afflicted with late stage prostate cancer, scientists are trying to understand the nature of prostate cancer cells and what makes them so “deadly”. By understanding the biology behind these tumor cells, they hope to develop better therapies to treat the late-stage forms of this disease.

UCLA scientists Bryan Smith and Owen Witte. (Image credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)

UCLA scientists Bryan Smith and Owen Witte. (Image credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)

But don’t worry, help is already on its way. Two groups from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Santa Cruz published a breakthrough discovery yesterday on the similarity between prostate cancer cells and prostate stem cells. The study was published in the journal PNAS and was led by senior author and director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center, Dr. Owen Witte.

Using bioinformatics, Witte and his team compared the gene expression profiles of late-stage, metastatic prostate cancer cells sourced from tumor biopsies of living patients to healthy cell types in the male prostate. Epithelial cells are one of the main cell types in the prostate (they form the prostate glands) and they come in two forms: basal and luminal. When they compared the gene expression profiles of the prostate cancer cells to healthy prostate epithelial cells, they found that the cancer cells had a similar profile to normal prostate epithelial basal stem cells.

Image of a prostate cancer tumor. Green and red represent different stem cell traits and the yellow areas show where two stem cell traits are expressed together. (Image credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)

Image of a prostate cancer tumor. Green and red represent different stem cell traits and the yellow areas show where two stem cell traits are expressed together. (Image credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center)

In fact, they discovered a 91-gene signature specific to the basal stem cells in the prostate. This profile included genes important for stem cell signaling and invasiveness. That meant that the metastatic prostate cancer cells also expressed “stem-like” genes.

First author Bryan Smith explained how their results support similar findings for other types of cancers. “Evidence from cancer research suggests that aggressive cancers have stem–cell-like traits. We now know this to be true for the most aggressive form of prostate cancer.”

So what does this study mean for prostate cancer patients? I’ll let Dr. Witte answer this one…

Treatments for early stage prostate cancer are often successful, but therapies that target the more aggressive and late-stage forms of the disease are urgently needed. I believe this research gives us important insight into the cellular nature of aggressive prostate cancer. Pinpointing the cellular traits of cancer — what makes those cells grow and spread — is crucial because then we can possibly target those traits to reverse or stop cancer’s progression. Our findings will inform our work as we strive to find treatments for aggressive prostate cancer.

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