Reeve-Irvine Scientific Research
Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become any of the body's cell types, and so offer tremendous promise for treating many degenerative diseases and nervous system injuries. Scientists in the RIRC are playing a lead role in the overall effort at UCI to develop stem cell therapies for neurological disorders. Two RIRC PI's (Director Os Steward and Associate Susan Bryant) are members of the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee (ICOC) that oversees the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) established through Proposition 71, and is responsible for determining the distribution of funds from Proposition 71. Os Steward was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger as the representative for spinal cord injury, and Susan Bryant is the representative for UCI on the ICOC.
The Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Center will be completed in 2010. RIRC members Hans Keirstead and Steve Cramer, along with Peter Donovan, are co-directors of UCI's Stem Cell Program.
In the case of spinal cord injury, embryonic stem cells could eventually be used to replace nerve cells that have been directly destroyed, promote axon regeneration, and replace the myelin forming cells that allow signaling along surviving axons. The first clinical trial involving human embryonic stem cells is based on the work of Hans Keirstead in collaboration with Geron Corporation of Menlo Park. Dr. Keirstead developed the protocol to turn human embryonic stem cells into oligodendrocytes, the cells that make the myelin sheath, and showed that transplantation of oligodendrocyte precursors improved walking ability following spinal cord injury in rats. The FDA approved the Phase I trial to test this therapy in people with newly acquired spinal cord injuries starting in the summer of 2009.
Drs. Aileen Anderson and Brian Cummings are working on another approach involves the transplantation of a type of adult stem cell called neural stem cells, which are determined to become cells of the nervous system (nerve cells and glia). These cells are being developed by a company called Stem Cells Incorporated. The hope is that when transplanted into the injured spinal cord, these cells may re-establish some of the circuitry that is important for the neural network. |
