CSULB gets $3 million grant for students to study stem cells

April 10, 2016

Two Cal State Long Beach professors hope that when stem cell research students come face-to-face with people living with illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease or spinal cord injuries, they will have a sense of urgency to develop new treatments or a cure

“Research can move slowly. It’s good to have that fire under them,” said Beth Eldon, a developmental biology professor. “It can open their eyes to what the conditions mean. They see people with these diseases and conditions. It’s not just cells in a dish.”

Molecular genetics professor Lisa Klig said meeting patients will “help students focus on the fact there is an urgency to stem cell research, and we need to accelerate the development of drugs and treatments.”

Students from CSULB’s biotechnology program will have the opportunity to interact with these patients starting in July thanks to a roughly $3 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The grant will cover 10 paid student internships at one of more than 30 stem cell laboratories at Cedars-Sinai, City of Hope and UC Irvine.

WHAT STEM CELLS DO

Stem cells are so valuable because they have potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Also, in many tissues, they serve as a sort of internal repair system, essentially dividing without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person is alive.

The medical community hopes stem cell research will find advancements in treating or finding a cure for such debilitating neurodegenerative conditions as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases and macular degeneration.

Other potential uses of stem cell therapy could be for stroke, brain and spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, cancer, baldness and arthritis.

As part of their training, the 10 student interns will visit Children’s Hospital Orange County and the VA Long Beach Healthcare System and interact with patients to hear their experiences.

“When you interact with somebody who has a disease, it makes you want to cure it in their lifetime,” Klig said. “If this grant wasn’t here, the students wouldn’t have this opportunity.”