Yale Receives More Than 5 Million Dollars In Stem Cell Funding

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 04 Apr 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Twelve Yale University stem cell research proposals received $5.66 million in funding from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.

The grants were among $10 million awarded Tuesday to Connecticut-based state scientists in the second year of Connecticut's 10-year, $100 million grant program to fund stem cell research.

The state received 87 proposals from scientists who were seeking more than $40 million under the highly competitive review process.

Among the big winners was a group proposal headed by Eugene Redmond, professor of psychiatry and surgery and director of the Yale Neural Transplant Program & Neurobehavior Laboratory. The team was awarded $1.1 million to study the potential of human embryonic stem cells for to use in transplant therapy for Parkinson's disease.

The committee also awarded $1.8 million to expand the capacity of the Yale Stem Cell Center to support stem cell research.

"The new grants that Yale investigators will receive are essential for furthering human embryonic stem cell research in the State of Connecticut," said Haifan Lin, professor of cell biology and director of the stem cell center. "We will try our best to utilize this key resource to achieve the goal."

Awards were also given to three established Yale investigators:

Laura Niklason, vice chair for research, Department of Anesthesiology, was awarded $450,000 to study the use of stem cells for creation of vascular cells and blood vessels.

Flora Vaccarino, associate professor, Yale Child Study Center and the Department of Neurobiology, will receive $449,771 to study the effects of oxygen deprivation on neural stem cells and their function in the repair of the central nervous system.

Dianqing Wu, professor of pharmacology, was awarded $446, 819 to study how human embryonic stem cells differentiate into heart cells.

In addition, seven Yale investigators received $200,000 seed grants to support their work.

They are: Lloyd Cantley, Departments ts. of Internal Medicine and Nephrology; Natalia Ivanova, Departmentt. of Genetics; Caihong Qui, Departmentt. of Cell Biology; Valerie Reinke, Departmentt. of Genetics; Masanori Sasaki, Departmentt. of Neurology; Qiaoqiao Wang, Departmentt. of Cell Biology, and Joshua Breunig, Departmentt. Of Neurobiology.

http://www.yale.edu