Sanford Consortium: CIRM Grantees

To date 38 the Sanford Consortium affiliated faculty have received grants from CIRM, totaling more than $50,000,000. For grant information, please visit CIRM's Web site at: www.cirm.ca.gov/RFA/default.asp

New Faculty Grant Awards
Five Sanford Consortium researchers have been awarded New Faculty Awards from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which are designed to encourage and foster the next generation of stem cell scientists in the early stages of their careers by supporting research across the full range of stem cell types - human and animal, adult and embryonic.
D. Leanne Jones, Ph.D.
D. Leanne Jones, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Genetics and holder of the William Scandling Development Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Her laboratory uses the process of spermatogenesis in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to establish paradigms for how stem cell behavior is controlled. With her grant, Jones seeks to uncover the mechanisms that are utilized to regulate the process of de-differentiation and to compare these to the mechanisms that endow stem cells with the ability to self-renew.

Jones received a doctorate from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Sheffield and Stanford University.

Sheng Ding, Ph.D.
Sheng Ding, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Chemistry and Cell Biology Departments at The Scripps Research Institute. His laboratory's main research focus is to develop and integrate chemical and functional genomic tools to study stem cell biology and regeneration. Over the past few years, Ding's laboratory has constructed large combinatorial chemical libraries and arrayed cDNA and RNAi libraries. Furthermore, it has developed and implemented high throughput cellular screens of these libraries to identify small molecules and genes which can control stem cell fate in various systems.

Ding received a doctorate from The Scripps Research Institute and a bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology.

Visit his laboratory's Web site www.scripps.edu/chem/ding/

David Traver, Ph.D.
David Traver, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at the University of California, San Diego. His laboratory is focused on vertebrate blood cell development, with an emphasis on the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that produce all cells of the hematolymphoid system. In in vivo models of leukemia, Traver's lab is studying the cancer stem cells that underlie propagation of disease. Their ultimate goals are to understand the biology of both normal and cancer stem cells to dissect the genetics of self-renewal and target the root of leukemogenic transformation. Traver received a doctorate from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. Visit his laboratory's Web sitewww.biology.ucsd.edu/labs/traver/index.html

Lei Wang, Ph.D.
Lei Wang, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Chemical Biology and Proteomics Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Wang proposes to introduce non-natural amino acids to identify unknown factors that govern the development of stem cells into dopamine neurons. Uncovering the mechanisms that regulate the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into dopamine neurons may yield new drug targets and inspire novel preventative or therapeutic strategies for Parkinson's Disease. Wang received a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley and bachelor's and master's degrees from Peking University. He completed his postdoctoral pharmacology work at the University of California, San Diego.

Kristin Baldwin, Ph.D.
Kristin Baldwin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. Her lab hopes to better understand the neural circuitry of smell as a first step in identifying the genes and molecular mechanisms that build these circuits. Baldwin studies specific olfactory circuits with the goal of genetically labeling the neurons that respond to specific odors. Tracing their projections into the cortical regions will allow her lab to identify genes that build these specific circuits. These findings will reveal mechanisms common to neural circuit formation throughout the brain and provide insight into genetic bases of human cognitive and behavioral disorders. Baldwin received a doctorate from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from Duke University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.

SHARED RESEARCH LABORATORY

Grants Four Sanford Consortium researchers have been awarded Shared Research Laboratory Grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which are designed to fund laboratory space for the culture of human embryonic stem cells, specifically those that were isolated after the funding ban implemented in August of 2001.

Jeanne Loring, Ph.D.
Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., is an adjunct associate professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. Loring's current research focuses on the molecular basis of pluripotence and differentiation of human embryonic stem (ES) cells. A major focus of her research is establishment of standard techniques for culture and analysis of human ES cells, to enable fruitful collaborations among researchers with diverse knowledge in molecular biology, physiology, and medicine. Her laboratory studies human ES cells using gene expression profiling, SNP genotyping, DNA methylation and other high information content approaches to understand how pluripotence is maintained and how to direct differentiation along specific pathways. In addition to investigating the fundamental biology of ES cells, Loring is developing practical applications for human ES cells for drug discovery, drug delivery and cell therapy. A major interest of her laboratory is to use stem cells to discover novel therapies for Alzheimer's disease.

Loing has a doctorate in developmental neurobiology and a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology.

Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D.
Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute. His research program combines the tools and principles of chemistry with the molecules and processes of living cells to synthesize new molecules and molecular assemblies with novel physical, chemical and biological functions. By studying the structure and function of the resulting molecules, new insights can be gained into the mechanisms of complex biological and chemical systems. Active research projects span the interface of biology, chemistry and materials science, and include:

the generation and characterization of catalytic antibodies

the development and application of methods for adding new building blocks to the genetic codes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms

the application of molecular diversity to problems in biological structure, recognition and catalysis, drug discovery and materials science

chemical and genomics studies of stem cell biology, oncogenesis and neurodegeneration

Schultz received his bachelor's and doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.

Visit his laboratory's Web site: schultz.scripps.edu

Inder Verma, Ph.D.
Inder M. Verma, Ph.D., a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics and American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Verma uses genetically engineered viruses to insert new genes into cells that can then be returned to the body, where they produce the essential protein whose absence causes disease. Verma and Salk colleagues developed a gene therapy vector, based on a stripped-down version of HIV that can deliver genes to non-dividing cells, which constitute the majority of the cells in our bodies. They have used this vector successfully to deliver the clotting factor gene to laboratory animals and to transfer a therapeutic gene to retinal cells to mice with an inborn deficiency. Verma's group is also studying two genes implicated in familial breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2, and recently demonstrated that their action is linked to the cell's division cycle and that BRCA1 regulates gene activity.

Verma received his doctorate in biochemistry from The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Karl H. Willert, Ph.D.
Karl Willert, Ph.D., is an assistant adjunct professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests focus on the molecular mechanisms that control whether a cell proliferates or differentiates. Striking a perfect balance between proliferation and differentiation is essential for the successful development, growth and survival of an organism. Wnt proteins and their signaling pathways are integrally involved in the regulation of this choice as indicated by their involvement in stem cell maintenance and expansion and tumorigenesis. Isolation and characterization of Wnt proteins will provide us with important tools for the ex vivo manipulation of stem cells and their use in treatment of a variety of human diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease and cancer.

Willert is the director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility (HESCCF)
stemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp.

COMPREHENSIVE GRANTS

Six Sanford Consortium researchers have been awarded Comprehensive Grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which are designed to fund ongoing studies with human embryonic stem cells.

Fred H. "Rusty" Gage, Ph.D.
Fred "Rusty" Gage, Ph.D., is a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute. His research is concentrated on the adult central nervous system and unexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation that remains throughout the life of all mammals. Gage's lab showed that, contrary to accepted dogma, human beings are capable of growing new nerve cells throughout life. Small populations of immature nerve cells are found in the adult mammalian brain, a process called neurogenesis. Gage is working to understand how these cells can be induced to become mature functioning nerve cells in the adult brain and spinal cord.

Gage received a doctorate from The Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida. He has served on many advisory boards and is a past President of the Society for Neuroscience. He is a fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Lawrence Goldstein, Ph.D.
Larry S.B. Goldstein, Ph.D., is a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. His research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of intracellular movement in neurons and the role of transport dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. His lab provided the first molecular descriptions of kinesin structure and organization, and has recently discovered important links between transport processes and diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.

Visit his laboratory's Web site atcmm.ucsd.edu/Lab_Pages/goldstein/Goldstein_Introduction.html

Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D.
Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center and a professor at the Burnham Institure for Medical Research. His laboratory studies molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and stroke, including the role of excessive stimulation of ion channels and intracellular signaling pathways in nerve cells. Among his laboratory's accomplishments and ongoing activities are (i) the development of the first glutamate receptor/channel antagonist drug (Memantine) to be clinically approved for dementia (approved by the European Union in May, 2002 and the FDA in the U.S. in October, 2003), (ii) characterization of signaling events leading to neuronal injury and apoptosis in AIDS, and (iii) cloning of a gene that programs embryonic stem cells to become nerve cells in the brain. These studies have led to the development of the first neuroprotective drugs to be administered successfully to humans to combat various neurodegenerative and vascular diseases of the brain.

Lipton earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his docorate from Harvard. He was then a medical intern and neurology resident at Harvard and a postdoctoral fellow of Torsten Wiesel when Wiesel won the Nobel Prize in 1981.

Martin Marsala, M.D.
Martin Marsala, M.D., is a professor in the Anesthesiology Department at the University of California, San Diego. He hopes his research with human embryonic stem cells will one day soon allow people who are suffering from spinal ischemic injury to improve their motor function. Ischemia-induced paraplegia, often combined with spasticity and rigidity of muscles, is a serious complication that sometimes occurs when patients undergo a surgical procedure to repair an aortic aneurysm. These symptoms also occur in many patients with traumatic spinal injuries, and currently there is no treatment that leads to a permanent improvement in symptoms and ambulatory function. Marsala's recent animal studies have demonstrated that spinal transplantation of rat and human neurons leads to significant improvement in motor function. The CIRM grant will fund additional experiments to characterize the therapeutic potential of human blastocyst-derived neuronal precursors when grafted to areas of spinal ischemic injury.

Visit the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web sitestemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Mark Mercola, Ph.D.
Mark Mercola, Ph.D. is the associate director of the Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center and a professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Mercola's research is directed at discovering molecules that promote differentiation of cardiomyocyte progenitors that will ultimately be useful for regeneration of muscle cells that are lost in heart disease. A second emphasis of the lab is on the production of pancreatic beta cells for diabetes applications. As for cardiomyocytes, the approach is to develop automated screening procedures to discover genes, proteins and small molecules that can be used to produce beta cells. Starting cell sources are embryonic stem cells as well as primary and immortalized human pancreatic cells.

Mercola earned his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Visit his laboratory's Web site at www.burnham.org/labs/mercola/

Yang Xu, Ph.D.
Yang Xu, Ph.D., is an associate professor in biology at the University of California, San Diego. Xu's research focuses on two major mechanisms that are thought to maintain genetic stability in human embryonic stem cells. His research is aimed at identifying pathways that promote efficient DNA repair as well as pathways that regulate self-renewing capabilities of these stem cells in the absence and presence of DNA damage. The goal is to promote efficient self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells with minimum genetic instability - critical for the development of human therapeutics. A major objective of Xu's proposed research is to improve the genetic manipulation technologies of human embryonic stem cells, including transgenic and gene-targeting technologies, in order to significantly improve scientists' capability to generate disease-specific human stem cell lines.

Xu received his doctorate from Harvard University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a fellow of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund.

Visit his laboratory's Web page www.biology.ucsd.edu/labs/xu/ and the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web site stemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

SEED GRANTS

Seventeen Sanford Consortium researchers have been awarded Seed Grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which are designed to fund the development of new ideas into the field of human embryonic stem cell research and to provide investigators with the support needed to yield preliminary, proof-of-principle results.

Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, B.M., Ph.D.
Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, B.M., Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. His researh focuses on ion channels, which are essential for neurotransmission, cellular differentiation and cardiac excitability. Excessive activities of voltage- or ligand-gated channels can lead to neuronal damage, epilepsy or cardiac arrhythmias. The Chen laboratory has two main research foci: 1) To elucidate the structure of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-gated channel, and to develop safe, selective open-channel blockers of NMDA receptors for the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases and 2) To elucidate the mechanisms of development of sinoatrial pacemaker cells of embryonic hearts in order to develop biological pacemaker cells from embryonic stem cells.

Chen earned a B.M. (M.D. equivalent) at College of Medicine, National Taiwan University and a doctorate in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He then completed a cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at the Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. He received postdoctoral training in Dr. Stephen Heinemann's Laboratory at the Salk Institute and cardiac electrophysiology training with Dr. Mark Josephson and Dr. Gregory Feld.

Shu Chen, M.D., Ph.D.
Shu Chien, M.D., Ph.D., is professor at the University of California, San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering. His research focuses on how the forces of blood flow impact the cardiovascular system. His studies are leading to new understanding of the onset of atherosclerosis and hypertension and to experimental treatments for heart disease using gene therapy and engineered tissue. Chien takes a multidisciplinary, integrative approach that combines engineering and biomedical sciences. He employs an array of technologies including nanotechnology, DNA microarrary, bioinformatics, cell biophysics and biomechanics in his research on the cardiovascular system.

Chien received his medical degree from the National Taiwan University and his doctorate in physiology from Columbia University.

Visit the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web sitestemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Senyon Choe, Ph.D.
Senyon Choe, Ph.D., is a professor in the Structural Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He uses X-ray crystallography as a major tool to determine three-dimensional structures of biologically important molecules. He and his colleagues also study the relationship between a molecule's fine structure and the functions it carries out. Among Choe's recent interests is the study of molecules that bind to specific cells to instruct them to carry out functions. An extension of this work will explore the possibility of designing new molecules that can be delivered specifically to modulate sick cells. His group also has done pioneering work on the molecular structure of an ion channel, important to many physiological functions ranging from heart rate to nerve cell communication.

Choe received a doctorate in biophysics from the University of Calfornia, Berkeley, a master's in biophysics from Seoul National University and a bachelor's in biology from Seoul National University. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Gregg Duester, Ph.D.
Gregg Duester, Ph.D., is a professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. He investigates genes that control vitamin A function during mouse embryogenesis and human embryonic stem cell differentiation. His laboratory was instrumental in discovering several genes encoding enzymes that allow specific cells to metabolize vitamin A (retinol) into an active form, retinoic acid, a potent regulator of gene expression. The tissue-specific location and timing of retinoic acid production during embryogenesis provides signaling information needed to generate the central nervous system, heart, eyes, vertebra and limb buds. Duester has found that mice carrying mutations in Raldh1, Raldh2 or Raldh3 fail to produce retinoic acid and display improper development of these tissues. His laboratory is now using these knockout mouse genetic models to understand what genes are controlled by retinoic acid during embryogenesis, a process which is very similar in mice and humans. By determining how retinoic acid functions during the initial development of tissues in embryos, his research promises to provide information needed to establish regenerative treatments for damaged or aged adult human tissues based upon stem cell therapies.

Duester earned doctorate in microbiology from the Medical College of Virginia. He received postdoctoral training at the University of California, Irvine.

Beverly M. Emerson, Ph.D.
Beverly M. Emerson, Ph.D., is a professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Her research is focused on the mechanisms by which genes are transcriptionally regulated and how these processes can malfunction to cause disease. Her lab has directed its efforts towards understanding how transcriptional regulation is achieved through chromatin using genes that are controlled by very distinct processes: developmental regulation and tumorigenesis. Global regulation of transcription occurs through epigenetic changes that are catalyzed by diverse chromatin enzymatic complexes. Emerson's lab identifies which chromatin complexes are recruited to specific genes and determining the mechanism by which they are selectively targeted to establish programmed patterns of gene expression. These issues are being explored using embryonic stem cells, to analyze normal mechanisms of gene programming that regulate cell fate and during early stages of tumorigenesis, to examine how these mechanisms go awry to initiate genomic instability. For example, gene silencing by DNA methylation is required for normal cellular differentiation. However, inappropriate silencing of critical genes by DNA methylation also occurs in a variety of human cancers. By understanding how chromatin structure and function is normally modulated by diverse enzymatic complexes, her lab hopes to gain insight into how these complexes are mistargeted during disease.

Emerson received a doctorate in molecular biology from Washington University and a bachelor's in biology from the University of California, San Diego. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The National Institutes of Health.

Sylvia M. Evans, Ph.D.
Sylvia Evans, Ph.D., is an asociate adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focus is on understanding heart development from a number of different perspectives. For adult heart disease, potential stem cell therapies will be facilitated by understanding the steps required to generate a cardiac cell from a stem cell. Her lab is trying to understand the stepwise process by which mesodermal precursors become committed to cardiac progenitors and then specified to become distinct lineages within the heart. Evans studies a number of transcription factors and growth factor pathways which are involved in this process, utilizing the mouse as a model system. Her lab has created a number of mouse mutants which are defective in specific aspects of heart development. Some of these mutants mimic congenital heart defects seen in human patients. Characterization of these mutants is giving us insight into mechanisms of cardiac programming, the nature of cardiac progenitor/stem cells, and pathways involved in congenital heart disease.

Evans received her doctorate in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia in bacterial genetics and then came to the Salk Institute in La Jolla to complete a postdoctoral fellowship with Steve Heinemann and Jim Patrick, studying the regulation of acetylcholine receptor genes at the neuromuscular junction in mouse.

Visit the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web sitestemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Hudson H. Freeze, Ph.D.
Hudson H. Freeze, Ph.D., is a professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. His lab currently focuses on identifying new defects that cause Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CGD) and trying to understand how these defects are translated into the disease presentation. Defects occur in genes that activate and transport sugars, assemble them into glycans and remodel them. Most recently identified are genes that are needed to traffic and distribute the glycosylation machinery within cells. Ongoing collaborations with academic physicians provide a steady flow of new patients for analysis. Since very few laboratories in the United States work on CDG, Freeze's lab is developing new molecular diagnostic methods to handle the increasing number of patients. With the help of generous philanthropic support, it has also recently begun to screen molecular libraries to identify small molecules that can supplement the depleted glycosylation pathways in some of these patients.

Freeze earned a doctorate from the University of California, San Diego and subsequently held fellowships in biology, medicine and neurosciences at the same institution.

Anirvan Ghosh, Ph.D.
Anirvan Ghosh, Ph.D., is a professor in the Biology Department at the University of California, San Diego. His lab studies the mechanisms that regulate the specification of connections in the developing cerebral cortex. There are two major areas of research in the lab. First, it investigates the mechanisms that regulate synapse formation and synaptic specificity in the developing cortex. The goal of these experiments is to identify signals that allow neurons to select appropriate synaptic partners and to understand how synaptic components are recruited to a developing synapse. Second, it explores the mechanisms by which synaptic activity influences the assembly and plasticity of neural circuits. These experiments are directed towards understanding how calcium signaling regulates neuronal morphology and the formation of functional connections.

Ghosh received his doctorate in neuroscience from Stanford and his bachelor's in physics from the California Institute of Technology. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Medical School.

Visit his laboratory's Web site at www.biology.ucsd.edu/labs/ghosh/ and the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web site atstemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Ziwei Huang, Ph.D.
Ziwei Huang, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. His research focuses on histone methyltransferases in tumor suppression. Abnormal diet causes one third of cancer deaths in the United States, and it remains one of the important problems of cancer research. Huang's group discovered tumor-suppressive functions for a class of enzymes, the histone methyltransferases, that requires dietary methyl intake for activity. His group is examining the hypothesis that abnormal diet, typically high in meat and low in vegetables and fruits, causes cancer by inhibiting histone methyltranferase class tumor suppressors.

Huang earned doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Diego.

Visit his laboratory's Web site www.life.uiuc.edu/z-huang/index.html

Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D.
Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. She researches cancer stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Compelling studies suggest that human cancer stem cells (CSC) arise from aberrantly self-renewing, tissue-specific stem or progenitor cells which are responsible for cancer propagation and therapeutic resistance. Human embryonic stem cells can provide a potentially limitless source of tissue-specific stem and progenitor cells in vitro, so represent an ideal model system for generating and characterizing human cancer stem cells. This research harbors tremendous potential for developing life-saving therapy for patients with cancer by providing a platform to rapidly and rationally test new therapies.

Jamieson received a medical degree from the University of British Columbia and a doctorate in microbiology from the same institution. She completed fellowships in hematology and bone marrow transplantation at Stanford. She completed another fellowship in bone marrow transplantation at the University of British Columbia and completed her residency at the same institute.

Visit the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web site atstemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Cornelis Murre, Ph.D.
Cornelius Murre, Ph.D., is a professor at the Univerisity of California, San Diego. His lab works on methods to generate long-term multi-potential human hematopoietic progenitor cell lines from human embryonic stem cells. If successful, the strategy would create cells that could be used to readily generate specific hematopoietic cell types, such as lymphocytes or dendritic cells, on a large scale for cell-based therapeutic approaches.

Murre received a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Visit his laboratory's Web site at www.biology.ucsd.edu/labs/murre/ and the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web sitehttp://stemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Robert G. Oshima, Ph.D.
Robert G. Oshima, Ph.D., is a professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. His laboratory investigates the role of the Ets2 nuclear regulatory molecule in breast and colon cancer using mouse genetic models. Decreasing the amount of Ets2 results in mice in which breast cancers progress slower. This effect is not due to the action of Ets2 in the tumor, but rather in the normal host tissues surrounding the lesion. In contrast to mammary tumors, decreasing Ets2 results in increasing colon cancers in the mouse. This repressive effect in colon cancer is linked to the role of Ets2 in regulating the self renewal of normal stem cells of the placenta. The formation of trophoblast stem cells from human embryonic stem cells and the possible stem cell origins of breast cancer are additional topics under investigation.

Oshima earned his doctorate in biology from the University of California, San Diego. He completed postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D.
Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D., is a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, His laboratoty's goal is to discover how nerve cells are formed and wire up correctly, focusing on the fetal development of the spinal cord. Of special interest to Pfaff is how motor neurons develop and make connections between the spinal cord and muscles in the body, since these connections are necessary for all body movements. Spinal cord injuries lead to paralysis because motor neuron function is disrupted. Degenerative diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), spinal muscle atrophy and post-polio syndrome result from the loss of motor neurons.

Phaff received his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley and his bachelor's from Carleton College. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University and at the Center for Neurobiology at Columbia University.

Visit his laboratory's Web page at pingu.salk.edu/~pfaff/

Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D.
Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute. His research program combines the tools and principles of chemistry with the molecules and processes of living cells to synthesize new molecules and molecular assemblies with novel physical, chemical and biological functions. By studying the structure and function of the resulting molecules, new insights can be gained into the mechanisms of complex biological and chemical systems. Active research projects span the interface of biology, chemistry and materials science, and include:

the generation and characterization of catalytic antibodies

the development and application of methods for adding new building blocks to the genetic codes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms

the application of molecular diversity to problems in biological structure, recognition and catalysis, drug discovery and materials science

chemical and genomics studies of stem cell biology, oncogenesis and neurodegeneration.

Schultz received his Bachelor of Science and doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.

Visit his laboratory's Web site at schultz.scripps.edu/

Alexey Terskikh, Ph.D.
Alexey Terskikh, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. His research interests are focused on the mechanisms of self-renewal and differentiation of stem cells. His lab investogates both cellular and molecular aspects of these processes using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as well as mouse neural stem cells. They recently developed a unique system allowing uniform differentiation of hESCs into multipotent neural precursors, allowing them to investigate the early events during hESC differentiation and to test the strategies for stem cell therapies. The lab is also fascinated with the biology of Maternal Embryonic Leucine zipper Kinase (MELK), working in close collaboration with the laboratory of Harley Kornblum, UCLA.

Terskikh earned a doctorate from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Irving Weissman at Stanford University, where he discovered a common genetic program between hematopoietic and neural stem cells.

Visit his laboratory's Web page www.burnham.org/labs/terskikh/

Binhai Zheng, Ph.D.
Binhai Zheng, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. His laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms of axon regeneration failure in the central nervous system (CNS). Lab members apply a variety of modern molecular biology techniques, mouse molecular genetics (inducible conditional mouse knockouts and transgenics), neuronal culture, mouse models of spinal cord injury and in vivo imaging with two-photon microscopy to address these questions. Lab members also genetically manipulate human embryonic stem cells to study their developmental and therapeutic potential. They hope this study will lead to the development of novel therapeutic intervention for spinal cord injury, white matter stroke and certain neurodegenerative disorders.

Zheng received his doctorate from the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. He conducted his undergraduate studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. Zheng completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University and Genentech Inc.

Visit his laboratory's Web page at zheng.ucsd.edu/ and the University of California, San Diego, Stem Cell Initiative Web site at stemcells.ucsd.edu/index.asp

Zhuohua Zhang, Ph.D.
Zhuohua Zhang, Ph.D.. is an associate professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. Zhang's research aims to understand mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (two most common neurodegenerative diseases caused by neuronal degeneration in the central nervous system) by studying the molecular functions of genes linked to the two diseases and dysfunction caused by their respective pathogenic mutants. The knowledge gained from his research will be helpful in better understanding neurodegenerative diseases, and ultimately, designing better treatments.

Zhang earned a doctorate in molecular pathology from the University of California, San Diego. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and received further postdoctoral training in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

TRAINING GRANTS
Four Sanford Consortium researchers have been awarded Training Grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which are designed to provide funds that will train the next generation of stem cell researchers.

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Ph.D.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Ph.D., is a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. He studies how genes and molecules orchestrate the development of an embryo. His laboratory utilizes different in vivo (mouse, chick, frog, and axolotl) and in vitro (human and mouse stem cells) model systems, as well as in silico modeling approaches, with particular emphasis on the genetic pathways involved in heart and bone development and regeneration. The laboratory's research has helped to discover some of the molecules that instruct embryonic stem cells to give rise to specific cell types during embryo development, and how these cells interact with one another to form tissues and organs with proper morphology and function. This ensures that our body's organs develop and function correctly and, at the same time, are placed in their correct positions.

Izpisua Belmonte received a doctorate from the Universities of Bologna, Italy and Valencia, Spain. He received a bachelor's in pharmacy and science from the University of Valencia. Izpisua Belmonte completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Marburg, The European Molecular Biology Laboratories at Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Lawrence Goldstein, Ph.D.
Larry S.B. Goldstein, Ph.D., is a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. His research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of intracellular movement in neurons and the role of transport dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. His lab provided the first molecular descriptions of kinesin structure and organization, and has recently discovered important links between transport processes and diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.

Goldstein received a doctorate in genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a bachelor's degree in biology and genetics from the University of California, San Diego. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Visit his laboratory's Web sitecmm.ucsd.edu/Lab_Pages/goldstein/Goldstein_Introduction.html

Mark Mercola, Ph.D.
Mark Mercola, Ph.D., is the associate director of the Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center and a professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Mercola's research is directed at discovering molecules that promote differentiation of cardiomyocyte progenitors that will ultimately be useful for regeneration of muscle cells that are lost in heart disease. A second emphasis of the lab is on the production of pancreatic beta cells for diabetes applications. As for cardiomyocytes, the approach is to develop automated screening procedures to discover genes, proteins and small molecules that can be used to produce beta cells. Starting cell sources are embryonic stem cells as well as primary and immortalized human pancreatic cells.

Mercola earned his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Visit his laboratory's Web site www.burnham.org/labs/mercola/

Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D.
Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., is a professor at The Scripps Research Institute. His research program combines the tools and principles of chemistry with the molecules and processes of living cells to synthesize new molecules and molecular assemblies with novel physical, chemical and biological functions. By studying the structure and function of the resulting molecules, new insights can be gained into the mechanisms of complex biological and chemical systems. Active research projects span the interface of biology, chemistry and materials science, and include:

the generation and characterization of catalytic antibodies

the development and application of methods for adding new building blocks to the genetic codes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms

the application of molecular diversity to problems in biological structure, recognition and catalysis, drug discovery and materials science

chemical and genomics studies of stem cell biology, oncogenesis and neurodegeneration

Schultz received his Bachelor of Science and doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. Visit his laboratory's Web site at http://schultz.scripps.edu/