$100 Million Gift Launches Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center …

University of California, San Diego. (PRNewsFoto/University of California, San Diego)

UC San Diego-based effort will speed discoveries to new drugs and treatments for patients

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a bold and singular step toward delivering the therapeutic promise of human stem cells, businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford has committed $100 million to the creation of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at the University of California, San Diego.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131031/DC07861LOGO)

The Sanford Center will accelerate development of drugs and cell therapies inspired by and derived from current human stem cell research; establishing, promoting and disseminating clinical trials and patient therapies that will help more quickly transform promise into reality.

"This gift and the creation of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center will further UC San Diego's leadership in stem cell science andtherapeutics, and advance our region's reputation as an international, collaborative hub for stem cell research,"said Pradeep K. Khosla, chancellor of UC San Diego. "This Center will support the goals and vision of ourstrategic planning process by translating discoveries into therapies that will improve and save lives."

The Sanford Center will integrate operations at four locations: the UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center and a nearby proposed clinical space, both scheduled to open in 2016; the UC San Diego Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine (CALM); and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM). It will provide essential physical and human resources needed to leverage stem cell research currently being conducted at the Sanford Consortium an innovative "collaboratory" of San Diego scientists from UC San Diego, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Scripps Research Institute and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and other institutions on and around the Torrey Pines mesa, such as the J. Craig Venter Institute.

"Every day, scientists learn more about the regenerative powers of stem cells, which tantalize with their potential to treat, cure, even prevent, myriad afflictions, including cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and spinal cord injury. I see it in the amazing collaborative advances by researchers and doctors in the Consortium and across the La Jolla mesa," said Sanford. "I believe we're on the cusp of turning years of hard-earned knowledge into actual treatments for real people in need. I want this gift to push that reality faster and farther."

In 2008, Sanford donated $30 million for the development and construction of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine facility, which opened in 2011. His gift to create the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center is the second largest donation received by UC San Diego in its 53-year history, following only the $110 million gift by Joan and Irwin Jacobs to endow the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

Since 2006, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's stem cell agency, has awarded UC San Diego scientists more than 60 grants totaling almost $138 million, with millions more given to other area institutions. Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, professor in the Departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Neurosciences, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program, and scientific director of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, said funding from CIRM and elsewhere has already helped push some stem cell-based projects into early clinical trials, with more nearing readiness.

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