UC Davis stem researchers demonstrate safety of gene therapy using adult stem cells

Bauer is the director of UC Davis' Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) laboratory in Sacramento. Upon its completion, UC Davis will be one of the few universities with a large GMP facility where scientists will work in an ultra-clean environment to derive cellular products that, after certification and extensive testing, will be used to treat patients. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has recommended funding for this new facility to help bring a wide range of stem cell therapy cures to patients throughout California.

According to Nolta, the results of the current study will allow UC Davis to move forward with increased certainty as it prepares for clinical trials.

"We are ready to further develop and test this safe approach to creating effective therapies, and are also using the same model to test the safety of embryonic stem cell-based therapies to fulfill the promise of regenerative medicine." she said.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; The John Connell Gene Therapy Foundation; a Career Development Award from the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles Research Institute, and UC Davis Stem Cell Program start-up funding.

About UC Davis Stem Cell Research

UC Davis has more than 125 basic, translational, and clinical faculty members working together on a variety of adult and embryonic stem cell investigations in both Davis and Sacramento. The university is currently renovating a 100,000 square foot stem cell research facility on its campus in Sacramento, where researchers will have access to state-of-the-art laboratories and cell manufacturing and testing rooms. That project, along with its Translational Human Embryonic Stem Cell Shared Research Facility in Davis complements the university's Clinical and Translational Science Center, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2005, the NIH awarded $6 million to fund a Center of Excellence in Translational Human Stem Cell Research on the Davis campus. One of only two such centers in the nation, it is focused on exploring stem and progenitor cell therapies for the treatment of childhood diseases. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded more than $14 million to researchers at UC Davis, to develop stem cell cures. The programs are designed to expedite the translation and integration of scientific research into discoveries and treatments that benefit society.