Stem cell researchers receive $1.6 million from CIRM for spinal cord injury studies

UCI stem cell researchers have received $1.6 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to create a new line of neural stem cells that can be used to treat chronicle cervical spinal cord injury. Aileen Anderson, director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at UCI, will lead the effort. The grant is part of CIRM’s Discovery Quest Award Program, which promoted the discovery of promising new stem-cell based technologies that can be translated to enable broad use and ultimately improve patient cares. The Anderson team plans to test these new cell lines in mouse studies to analyze their effectiveness and potential for future use in clinical trials. Over the years, Anderson has received nearly $3 million in CIRM funding. She is a founding member of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, and along with her collaborator, Brian Cummings, have made numerous breakthroughs on stem-cell based research for spinal cord injury. Overall, UCI researchers have received nearly $110 million of funding from CIRM, which was created by the people of California and is the world’s largest institution dedicated to helping people by bringing the future of cellular medicine closer to reality.