Video describes life with Huntington's disease, hopes for stem cell therapies

The University of California, Irvine has begun posting video interviews with their stem cell institute director Peter Donovan (You can see all of those videos here.). Of the eight interviews, including ones with former CIRM board chair Robert Klein and leading UCI stem cell researchers, one of the most moving is with Huntington's Disease advocate Frances Saldana.


Saldana lost her husband, one daughter and two of her husband's brothers to the disease. Her two remaining kids have advanced Huntington's disease. She now has two grandchildren, both of whom have a 50/50 chance of having inherited the disease. In the UCI video Saldana says:

"This is not an illness that is going to go away once you lose your loved one. It's going to carry on through the generations. When they do inherit Huntington's Disease they will lose the ability to walk, to talk and to swallow and they will start to experience atrophy of the muscles which causes spasticity and a lot of pain. It's very painful."

Saldana spoke to the CIRM governing board about life with Huntington's disease back in 2007. Saldana is one of many of the passionate advocates for Huntington's disease who have spoken with the agency over the years and who have been tireless supporters of stem cell research.

"What I would hope for, if not a cure, is a treatment to alleviate human suffering for our families. I don't think stem cell research will provide a cure for my two other children, but I have two grandchildren and now they are vibrant and beautiful and I hope they have a full life ahead of them, but we need to have something for them if and when they might be carrying that mutant protein."

The agency currently funds five awards with a focus on the disease. You see a list of these awards, learn more about Huntington's disease, and watch a video CIRM produced about the disease on our disease fact sheet.

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UC Irvine Opens the Sue & Bill Gross Hall

On Friday, May 14 UC Irvine held the grand opening of their newly constructed Sue &Bill Gross Hall. According to a story on the University's web site:

The $80-million, 100,000-square-foot building was designed to facilitate contact between patients in the first-floor clinic and rehabilitation center and stem cell researchers in first-, second- and third-floor labs.

(Image: Hans Keirstead greets Bill Gross at the opening ceremonies. Courtesy of Daniel A. Anderson / UCI)

This was one of 12 facilities throughout California that received a CIRM Major Facilities Award to construct space for stem cell research. UC Davis opened their facility in March. Although Irvine held the second opening, theirs was the first for a newly constructed building.

The 12 major facilities received $272 million from CIRM, with private donations and institutional investments bringing the project totals to more than $1 billion. Sue and Bill Gross made a $10 million gift to the Irvine facility. An independent review of the impact of this investment for the state economy last year by The Analysis Group suggested that the projects would create 13,000 job years of employment and $100 million in tax revenue.

UC Irvine leveraged their CIRM dollars beyond their original goals -- they managed to construct a fourth floor for the same cost as the original three floor proposal.

An LA Times story quotes UC Irvine Stem Cell Research Center director Peter Donovan as saying:

"Whatever we achieve here, it is your legacy as much as ours," he said. "The use of stem cells can revolutionize the treatment of human diseases and injuries."

Scientists are due to move into the building over the next few weeks.



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Embryonic stem cells repair radiation damage in mice

Radiation can effectively destroy brain tumor cells – but at a cost. While killing the tumor cells the treatment also damages normal cells in portions of the brain involved in learning and memory, leaving people with varying levels of impairment. New work by researchers at the University of California, Irvine suggests that human embryonic stem cells are able to ameliorate radiation-induced normal tissue damage.

The group, led by CIRM SEED grantee Charles Limoli, irradiated the heads of rats then transplanted human embryonic stem cells into the brain. In a memory test four months after the radiation, transplanted rats performed as well as rats that had never been irradiated. Rats that received radiation but no transplanted stem cells showed a significant decline in learning and memory.

The transplanted cells had migrated through the brain and matured into a variety of brain cells. The cells did not form any tumors (at least by 4 months) – something scientists are careful to watch for in transplanted stem cells.

In a press release by UCI, Limoli said:

"With further research, stem cells may one day be used to manage a variety of adverse conditions associated with radiotherapy."

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: November 10, 2009
CIRM funding: Charles Limoli (RS1-00413-1), Peter Donovan (RC1-00110-1)

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