Health and Medical Research Council and the State of Victoria, the United States National Institutes of Health, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, Brazil’s São Paulo Research Foundation, Scottish Enterprise, and health organizations in Argentina, Brazil, and India.
Various groups within California are also coming together to coordinate stem cell research efforts. For instance, in San Diego, the University of California, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Scripps Research Institute formed a consortium in 2006 dedicated to sharing stem cell research and funding. This consortium has received a total of $37,336,063 in Comprehensive Research Grants from CIRM.
Private Funding
Philanthropists have been generous in their support of the stem cell work going on in California’s universities. The New York–based Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Fund donated $20 million to Stanford University that enabled the school to establish a stem cell research center. The Broad Foundation contributed $25 million to the University of Southern California, which was used to build a new stem cell research center. Ray and Dagmar Dolby gave $5 million to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and $16 million to the University of California, San Francisco to fund stem cell research.
By 2005, American philanthropists had donated $250 million to California universities and research programs conducting stem cell research. The University of California, Los Angeles has used $20 million in donations to recruit new stem cell researchers to conduct significant work in fields such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and neurological disorders.
Examples of Research
California stem cell researchers are making great strides in developing new therapies. In 1999, scientists at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles succeeded in removing 10 to 15 neural stem cells from a patient with Parkinson’s disease and forced them to develop into six million dopaminergic neural stem cells. The new cells were then injected into the brain of the patient from whom they derived. As a result, the patient’s ability to produce dopamine increased by 62 percent, improving the patient’s motor skills by 40 to 50 percent.
In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on cell biology with Carol Grider, a professor of biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Massachusetts General Hospital. The following year, Menlo Park–based Geron Corporation launched a major trial of a stem cell therapy designed to restore spinal cord tissues in patients with severe injuries.
David Rowitch and a team at the University of California, San Francisco transplanted human neural cells into the brains of four young males suffering from a genetic disease that prevented the wrapping of neurons in myelin, which protects the neurons and assists the brain in sending electric signals. A year later, the researchers found that the transplanted stem cells had succeeded in restoring the myelin. Similar results were reported by other researchers who conducted similar research on the neuron cells of mice. Stephen Back led one of the studies at Oregon’s Health and Science University; Nobuko Uchina led the other study at Stem Cell Inc. in Newark, California.
The tendency of human bodies to reject foreign invaders means that most transplant patients need to take immunosuppressive drugs regularly. The situation becomes more serious when patients develop graft-versus-host disease. Researchers are constantly working for new ways to prevent such occurrences. At the University of California, Davis, researchers are using dogs with liver transplants to test the possibility of giving patients extra amounts of mesenchymal cells from adult bone marrow or umbilical cord blood to bypass transplant rejection.
Private companies are also making considerable contributions to stem cell research in California. In 2007, International Stem Cell Corporation developed the process of parthenogenesis in which eggs are chemically induced to begin maturation. Although these parthenotes display the same pluripotent characteristics as human embryonic stem cells, they are not viable embryos because they are incapable of developing into a human being. Thus, parthenogenesis bypasses the ethical debate of human embryos. One method for negating the need for immunosuppressive drugs in patients with liver transplants is being developed by San Diego–based Viacyte Inc., which is creating containers that the body will not be able to detect even though it allows the cells to perform normal functions such as absorbing and secreting waste. Viacyte is also developing a bio-artificial pancreas for diabetes encased inside a plastic cartridge that will allow the stem cells inside to release insulin into the body as needed.
In Palo Alto, Stem Cells Inc. has applied for federal approval to begin clinical trials for its proprietary neural cell therapy for patients with Batten disease, a rare neurodegenerative disease that causes blindness and dementia in children. Since 2011, Advanced Cell Technology Inc., located in Santa Monica and Marlborough, Massachusetts, has been conducting clinical trials using embryonic stem cells to reverse damaged retinas in children with juvenile macular degeneration. A second trial involves treating macular degeneration in the elderly. In 2012, International Stem Cell, based in Carlsbad, announced that it was collaborating with researchers in India to use stem cells to regenerate corneal tissue in patients suffering from macular degeneration.
Because of California’s staunch support for stem cell research, the state has served as a model for other states committed to creating their own supportive environments. Representatives from other countries, including the United Kingdom, Israel, China, and India, regularly visit California to observe the state’s stem cell activities and discuss potential collaborations. Researchers from California are also regularly invited to other countries to participate in international conferences and workshops. California is home to the only state agency that has been invited to join the International Stem Cell Forum (ICSF), which is made up chiefly of national agencies involved in stem cell research. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine joined ISCF in 2007.
Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy
Independent Scholar
See Also: Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, The, Geron Corporation; International Stem Cell Forum; Maryland; Michael J. Fox Foundation; New York; Stanford University; Stem Cell Companies: Overview; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; University of California, San Francisco; ViaCyte Inc.
Further Readings
Benjamin, Ruha. People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013.
Broder, John M. and Andrew Pollack. “California to Vote on Stem Cell Research Funds.” New York Times (September 20, 2004).
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. http://www.cirm.ca.gov (Accessed April 2014).
Kent, Christopher. “Stem Cell Revolution: Regenerating the Eye.” Review of Ophthalmology, v.19/9 (September 2012).
Levine, Aaron D. “State Stem Cell Policy and the Geographic Preferences of Scientists in a Contentious Emerging Field.” Science and Public Policy, v.39/4 (August 2012).
Robertson, Kathy. “What’s Happening With Stem Cell Research in California?” Sacramento Business Journal (April 1, 2014).
Shulman, Seth. Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
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