UCI Gets $27.2 Million Today For Stem Cell Research

(VIDEO ABOVE WAS PART OF THE GRANT PROPOSAL)

This the letter that I just got in my emailbox,

Stem Cell Patient Advocate Committee,

We are very pleased to announce that UC Irvine was awarded $27.2 million today from the state to build a new stem cell research facility that will unify and strengthen the campus’s fast-growing stem cell biology program and serve as a hub for research in Southern California.

When completed, the three-story, 61,600-square-foot building will house the UCI Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, as many as 26 laboratory-based and clinical researchers, a stem cell techniques course for young scientists, a master’s program in biotechnology with an emphasis on stem cell research, and an array of programs and activities that involve and educate patients and the general public. It will include the core stem cell laboratory and state-of-the-art equipment for human embryonic stem cell line derivation, cell culture, differentiation and purification, and cell and tissue imaging. It also will include clinical space with resources to see patients.

Pending final University of California Board of Regents approval, construction is scheduled to begin in September and finish in July 2010. The facility will be modeled after the existing Hewitt Hall and located within the heart of UCI’s Biomedical Research Center in the Health Sciences complex.

We are extremely thankful of the institutional support that has enabled this award, and the growth of UCI's stem cell activities. We look forward to many years of continued success, and welcome your involvement.

Hans and Peter

I am very happy to be part of the UCI Stem Cell Patient Advocate Committee as a representative from the deaf community since November 2006.

Richard