CIRM grantee Robert Blelloch wins ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award

CIRM grantee Robert Blelloch of the University of California, San Francisco won the 2011 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. The society's annual meeting is taking place now in Toronto.

Blelloch presented his research June 15 at 6pm and will participate in a press briefing at noon June 16. His work focuses on the role of small molecules called microRNAs and their role in stem cell biology and cancer.

Jennifer O'Brien described Blelloch's work in a press release from UCSF:

During the last few years, Blelloch’s team has reported several key findings. In 2008, they reported that microRNAs promote self renewal of embryonic stem cells in mice (Nature Genetics, 2008). In 2009, they showed that when those same microRNAs were inserted into adult cells the cells de-differentiated back into embryonic stem cells (Nature Biotechnology, 2009). In 2010, they inserted a microRNA into embryonic stem cells and promoted differentiation, but determined that the microRNA had to compete with microRNAs that promote embryonic stem cell self-renewal (Nature, 2010). This year, his laboratory has been looking at microRNAs as a potential tool to systematically dissect the molecular pathways that regulate cell fate transitions, including dedifferentiation of adult cells to create induced pluripotent stem cells (Nature Biotechnology, 2011).

“People have come to realize microRNAs are remarkably powerful,” said Blelloch, associate professor in the Departments of Urology, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Pathology and a member of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Using microRNAs for therapeutic purposes has great potential , he said. “They could be used either to induce adult cells to de-differentiate to embryonic stem cells, which could be expanded, manipulated and returned to a patient, or to promote differentiation of embryonic stem cells to produce tissues that would remain integrated in the body once re-introduced.” They also could be used to target cancers, and they attract interest from biotechnology companies.

Blelloch has a SEED Award and a New Faculty II Award, both looking at the role of microRNAs in embryonic stem cell biology. Not to blow our own horn, but CIRM does know how to pick high quality research. Last year Stanford's Joanna Wysocka won the same award. She has a SEED Award and a New Faculty I Award from CIRM.

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Genetic regions guide embryonic stem cell development

Joanna Wysocka

Stem cell research generally doesn’t make the news unless it’s a story about diseases and cures. We push toward cures every day here at CIRM, but we also fund a lot of the less flashy science that — though it doesn’t make the daily news — we think will one day underlie many of those future cures.

A recent paper by CIRM grantee Joanna Wysocka at Stanford is one of those that sounds pretty basic but could end up as an important milestone in understanding how human embryonic stem cells form the various types of tissues in the body.

Wysocka, who was last year’s Outstanding Young Investigator at the International Society for Stem Cell Research meeting, found thousands of DNA regions, called enhancers, that control the activity of far distant genes. Of the enhancers they found, more than two thousand carried molecular tags that held the genes in a state much like swimmers at the start of a race — ready to spring to action but also held in check. As the stem cells matured into a given cell type, those tags holding the enhancers in check fell away and the gene was able to spring off the starting block.

In a Stanford press release Wysocka said:

“This is going to be an enormous resource for researchers interested in tracking cells involved in early human development. It will be very interesting to learn how these enhancers affect gene expression in each cell type.”

Having found these enhancers scientists can develop better tools for maturing embryonic stem cells or iPS cells into the desired cell type — heart cells, pancreas, skin, nerves or anything else. Right now, coaxing stem cells to become the desired cell type is a big hurdle and is not terribly efficient for some cell types. Anything that improves that process is a step toward those flashier papers about stem cells and cures.

CIRM Funding: Joanna Wysocka (RN1-00579-1)
Nature, December 15, 2010

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What's hot at 100?

This blog is turning 100 -- posts that is. On the eve of our centenial, here's a top 10 of what's hot:

1: Geron to begin stem cell trial for spinal cord injury
2: UC Irvine Opens the Sue & Bill Gross Hall
3: iPS cells and embryonic stem cells -- similar but not the same
4: CIRM grantee Joanna Wysocka wins Outstanding Young Investigator Award
5: Stem cells treat Parkinson's disease in rats
6: Update on stem cell treatments for spinal cord injury
7: Neural stem cells help mice with chronic spinal cord injury walk again
8: iPS and embryonic stem cells -- similar but not the same
9: The competition that isn't: Adult vs. embryonic stem cells
10: What the embryonic stem cell research ban means to California researchers

Of these, I'll admit a preference for #4. It's exciting to see enthusiastic young women scientists being recognized for their work. Wysocka, an assistant professor at Stanford University, credits her CIRM SEED grant (summary here) for pulling her into work with human embryonic stem cells. She's since gone on to receive a New Faculty Award (summary here) and was given among the highest scores for a recently submitted NIH grant for human embryonic stem cell work to address a devastating developmental disorder. That grant has been caught up in the recent funding battle (mentioned in this blog entry).

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Legal wrangling slows Stanford researcher's quest for a cure

Joanna Wysocka/Stanford University

What does all the legal wrangling mean for stem cell scientists? Stanford published a profile of up-and-coming star Joanna Wysocka, who talks about her own NIH-funded research. Wysocka was awarded the Outstanding Young Investigator Award at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in June and has both a SEED and a New Faculty award from CIRM. In her acceptance speech for the ISSCR award Wysocka credited her SEED award for pulling her into the field of stem cell research.

Amidst her other successes, Wysocka also received the highest of scores on an NIH grant proposal that would fund stem cell research with the promise to help children with a rare developmental disorder known as CHARGE syndrome, which leads to life-threatening complications.

That award is one of the ones that got held up in the Aug. 23 ruling that threw NIH funding of human embryonic stem cell research into a tailspin. The Stanford story says:

“I am currently funding this project largely from leftovers of my start-up funds and relatively unrestricted junior investigator awards, but we need more money to continue,” she said. While the latest ruling means that the NIH can fund grants like hers, there is uncertainty among researchers nationwide due to the unsettled state of the law.

As of September 9, the NIH can once again proceed with funding human embryonic stem cell grants, but that funding is far from settled. That uncertainty could lead to significant delays.

Although the NIH now can move forward on her grant, she’s not sure how fast it can act — and whether the next court ruling could deal another setback before that happens. She noted that the NIH committee that must give final approval for her funding met while Lamberth’s ruling was in effect, so it did not consider her grant. That committee meets only three times a year, she said, so now she may have to wait.

“The review process was disrupted — it’s not something that can change in a day,” she said. “I have no clue when my grant will get back on track.”

The stem cell researchers and people employed in their labs are disrupted by the legal back and forth, but what’s worse is the uncertainty for families of children with CHARGE syndrome who look to work like Wysocka’s with hope.

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CIRM grantee Joanna Wysocka wins Outstanding Young Investigator Award

Some happy news from this week's meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research held in San Francisco (co-sponsored by CIRM): CIRM grantee Joanna Wysocka won the organization's Outstanding Young Investigator Award, given out at a session on Thursday morning. Wysocka, who is assistant professor of developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, has SEED and New Faculty Awards to study how cells determine their eventual fate in a developing embryo.

In her acceptance speech, Wysocka credited CIRM with directing her work toward stem cell research. After receiving her award, she discussed some of her recent work, described in a recent blog entry from Stanford:

She went on to discuss her recent work in identifying the molecular cause of a human disorder called CHARGE. She also showed how her team has since used an analytical program created by Stanford developmental biologist and computer scientist Gill Bejerano, PhD, to identify more than 2000 sites on DNA that may affect the activity of a special type of cell called a neural crest cell. 

Congratulations to Wysocka and to Stanford!

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