Overview
Since 1981, when the University of California, San Francisco’s Gail Martin, PhD, co-discovered embryonic stem cells in mice and coined the term embryonic stem cell, UCSF has been a key player in the stem cell field.
Beginning in the late 1990s, UCSF’s Roger Pedersen, PhD, was one of two University scientists nationwide – the other being James Thomson, DVM, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin – to pioneer the human embryonic stem cell field. Following Thomson’s 1998 discovery of a technique for deriving human embryonic stem cells from donated embryos left over following in vitro fertilization efforts, Pedersen’s lab derived two of its own lines of cells using the same technique.
Today, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind in the United States.
In about 125 labs, basic science researchers carry out studies in cell culture and animals aimed at understanding healthy cell function and disease progression and developing treatment strategies for a broad spectrum of disorders, including heart disease, diabetes, neurological diseases – such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury – and cancer. Clinical research teams have begun one of the first early-stage stem cell clinical trials in the United States, and other potential trials are on the horizon.
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