September, 2011
Contact: Professor Nikki Adams nadams@calpoly.edu
Professor Trevor Cardinal tcardina@calpoly.edu
First Stem Cell Specialty Master’s Candidates Graduate
The First Class of Stem Cell M.S. degree graduates (l-r): Tommy Harper, Anna McCann,
Blake Warbington,
Aubrey Smith,
Kyla Thoele,
Katie Kirk, Gabrielle Winters,
Ashley Russel, Andrew Burch, Chris Miracle.
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- The first crop of master’s degree candidates in the new Bridges to Stem Cell specialty graduated this summer after an intensive two-year program.
The College of Science and Mathematics, College of Engineering and College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences partnered to create the program, funded by a $1.4 million, three-year grant in 2009. “What we’ve done is to create a program to train more people to work with stem cells, to go into that growing field and work in industry and research sites, and education,” explained Biology Professor Nikki Adams. Adams teaches the initial “Principals of Stem Cell Research” course taken by the grad students.
Cal Poly’s specialty degree program admits only 10 students per year. They spend the first year of the program at Cal Poly, taking courses through the Biological Sciences Department, Biomedical Engineering Department, and one Animal Science course. They then go on to an intensive one-week stem cell research session at UC San Diego.
It’s at UCSD where the students first work with actual human stem cells – cells that can be manipulated into many other types of cells.
After completing the UCSD seminar, the grad students go on to serve a nine-month internship in a California research lab or private company working with stem cells. They return for one last quarter at Cal Poly to present their research. Program grads earn a Master of Science in Biological Science with a specialization in stem cell research. The second class of stem cell specialty grad students is now scattered around California, working in research labs. The third group began the program Fall Quarter.
Cal Poly has just received word that the stem cell research grant has been renewed for another three years. The funding comes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which is in charge of distributing stem cell research bond money approved by California voters.
The funding pays for the UCSD stem cell seminar, and pays the grad students a stipend during their nine-month internships.
The first class to go through the program were a mix of Biology and Biomedical Engineering students who earned their bachelor’s degrees at Cal Poly. After graduating in June, Five of them are going on to Ph.D. programs, one was hired as a research technician at UC San Diego, another was hired as a research technician at Stanford, and one is teaching this fall as a lecturer at Cal Poly.
Tom Harper graduated with his master’s in June. He did his internship at UC San Diego’s Pediatrics & Cellular and Molecular Medicine lab. He’s now a technician there.
“My lab is working on better understanding pancreatic development, which will help in creating a cell-based therapy for diabetes,” he explained.
What got him into stem cell research, Harper said, “is the idea that what you are working on could one day be used to create therapies for people with diseases.”
“When scientists and engineers better understand how to more efficiently differentiate stem cells into certain tissue types, more cell-based therapies can be developed, especially for those diseases characterized by the loss of a single cell type, like diabetes,” he explained.
M.S. grad Andrew Burch has been accepted to UC Davis to pursue a Ph.D. and continue working on stem cell research. He did his master’s internship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. “I wanted to specialize in stem cell research because I think it's going to be a very important component of regenerative medicine in the future. The first clinical trial investigating embryonic stem cell use in spinal cord injury repair is going on right now. Other regenerative uses for embryonic stem cells are sure to follow,” he said.
Burch is also interested in research being done using stem cells taken from adults suffering from diseases like Alzheimer’s and Schizophrenia to discover more about how those diseases progress. The Cal Poly stem cell specialty master’s degree, he said, prepared him for life as a researcher.
M.S. grad Aubrey Smith agrees. She interned at UC San Diego with Dr. Karen Christman’s lab. She’s still looking for a job, but wants to go into cardiovascular tissue engineering.“I’ve always loved tissue engineering and I know there will be a future in tissue engineering and stem cell research," she said. Thanks to the Cal Poly stem cell master's program, "I'm very prepared for my job. The classes gave me the knowledge, while the internship provided me with the experience.”
After earning her stem cell specialty master’s degree, Gabrielle Winters was accepted as a doctoral student in the University of Florida’s Biomedical Sciences program. She plans to focus on neurobiology research.
The Cal Poly stem cell master’s program “was a great way to get a taste of what it is really like to work in a functioning laboratory,” Winters said. “The general background and theory on stem cells was provided in a classroom setting, while the lab and experimental design skills were all learned in a practical setting. I feel prepared and excited to enter University of Florida’s Ph.D. program this fall.”