Cells

Stem cells can repair memory after brain damage, UC Irvine researchers have found. The findings have led the scientists to look into the potential benefits of stem cells in human diseases that impair memory, such as Alzheimer’s. Using genetically-engineered mice that develop lesions on the hippocampus — the memory-portion of the brain — scientists found that memory returned to normal levels when stem cells were injected. The stem cells help in an unexpected way. Rather than replacing dead or damaged memory cells in the brain, the stem cells release a protein that increases connections between existing neurons.

Adult stem cells live in a different part of the brain than previously thought, and knowing where they are allows scientists to produce new cells, a new study by UCI researchers shows. The results will appear in this month’s online journal of Neuroscience. The early school of thought believed stem cells were in the subventricular zone, but new evidence puts them in the ependymal cells that line the ventricles in the brain with the spinal chord. Ventricles transport fluids that support the brain tissue.

Michael Miller A UC Irvine research paper, scheduled for publication today, may mark a vital step in the search for a cure for spinal-cord injuries. Hans Keirstead, a professor at UCI's Reeve-Irvine Research Center, said the 11-page report marks the first published evidence that oligodendrocytes, or myelin-creating cells, can be used to restore motor skills in patients with spinal-cord injuries. Keirstead and six colleagues -- Gabriel Nistor, Giovanna Bernal, Minodora Totoiu, Frank Cloutier, Kelly Sharp and Oswald Steward -- are expected to publish an article on their findings today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Two UCI scientists will receive $1.6 million of state money to help develop devices that can track and sort stem cells. The money comes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and it is aimed at tools to defeat roadblocks in stem cell research. Researcher Lisa Flanagan’s team is working on a device that could sort stem cells by a kind of electrical signature. If they are successful, the machine could make it far cheaper to find only the cells destined for the nervous system, for example.

A new study from UC Irvine suggests that human embryonic stem cells could improve healthy tissue damaged during radiation treatment for brain tumors. Researchers treated rats with radiation, then transplanted stem cells into some of them. They found that the rats that received the stem cells had their learning and memory restored to normal levels within four months after receiving radiotherapy. The rats that didn?t receive stem cells saw a greater than 50% drop in brain function.

UCI scientists have found a new way to sort stem cells that could expedite therapies for brain and spinal cord injuries and Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s diseases, school officials announced Thursday. Various types of stem cells have different electrical properties, scientists said. The technique created by UCI stem cell biologist Lisa Flanagan and her team capitalizes on that fact and uses electrical charges to capture the types of stem cells they want while discarding the others.

A UCI engineer was awarded a $2.1 million state grant to study the effect of embryonic stem cells on heart disease, university officials announced Wednesday. Andrew Putnam will study how embryonic stem cells can help the body recover from heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. Adult stem cells have been known to stimulate capillary blood vessels, which transfers blood to damaged tissue. Putnam will investigate whether embryonic stem cells, or a combination of adult and embryonic stem cells can heal the body with cardiovascular problems.

UCI researchers have made a discovery they say may help scientists understand more about heart and muscle disease. The study found that a single change in the mitochondria of a cell’s DNA can cause degenerative heart disease and muscle disease. The mitochondria are sometimes characterized as the cell’s “power plant” because it provides energy. Both diseases are often referred to as age-related, and the discovery helps make a connection between mitochondria and human health.

When UC Irvine opens an $80-million research building next week, campus officials and leading scientific researchers hope they will be paving the way for the future of medicine. On Friday, leaders from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), UCI and the newly crowned Sue and Bill Gross Hall: A CIRM Institute, will unveil the 100,000-square-research center. The institute, which was designed exclusively for basic stem-cell research and clinical studies, is one of several CIRM has developed in California.

A leading neuroscientist and co-director of UCI’s stem cell research center will meet with members of Congress today and explain what he and his team will do when they conduct the first human trials of stem-cell therapy in the country later this year, university officials said. Hans Keirstead, co-director of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center and faculty member at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, will meet with members of Congress and their aides to explain how he plans to implement his success spinal-cord injury therapy to humans.

COSTA MESA - Police continued the search Monday for two men they say robbed a cell phone store at gunpoint. The men covered their faces with hooded sweatshirts when they robbed a Verizon Wireless store at 2300 Harbor Blvd. 9 a.m. Saturday, police said in a news release. The two took an unknown amount of cash and phones. Police said the suspects are black, in their early 20s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing between 150 and 170 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt. Ed Everett at (714)

Costa Mesa police said they arrested the final suspect, a minor, in an attempted carjacking by gang members that sent a Newport Beach man to the hospital. In all, six minors ranging in age from 14 to 17 and Juan Carlos Juarez, 18, of Orange, were arrested on suspicion of pulling the victim from his car and beating him before attempting to steal the car, police said in a news release Wednesday night. On Aug. 2, the man was eating at the Del Taco at 1720 Superior Ave., when the group of suspected Varrio El Modena gang members from Orange approached him, flashed gang signs, a handgun and threatened to kill him, according to police.

Sunglasses, sunscreen, beach towel and swimsuit are the obvious beach essentials, but this summer, so are old cell phones. More than a dozen local sixth-grade girls are trying to give back to soldiers and Marines serving overseas by providing them with phone cards and are asking for residents to help by donating their old cell phones at the Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard headquarters, located at A Street on the south side of the Balboa Pier....

Editor's note: This corrects the amount the school district expects to save in energy costs. Thanks to fuel cells, students at University and Woodbridge high schools may be swimming in a sustainable pool next year. The technology was approved last month during an Irvine Unified School District school board meeting. Over the next 20 years, the fuel cells could save the district as much as $567,698 at each school. "We set up an effort about two years ago to go after renewable energy sources to help the district save money in the long run," said school board member Mike Parham.

While a federal judge's ruling that recently halted federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research carries implications nationwide, on the local level the effects are less clear. At UC Irvine's Stem Cell Research Center, only a fraction of the work that goes on is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Since the Bush administration first implemented a funding ban, scientists at the center have taken the extra step of carefully dividing their research funded by the federal government from the work done through state and private donations, said Hans Keirstead, one of the center's leading researchers.

CRYSTAL COVE STATE PARK — He fought powerful interests: Caltrans, Orange County, the state parks system and the Irvine Co., all in the name of ocean views. Dale Ghere, then a high school biology teacher, spent the late 1990s eradicating a towering brush from swaths of Crystal Cove State Park. The saltbrush was blocking views — not from his home — but from Coast Highway, where he rode his bike each day. Everything was clear until May, when a cell phone company stuck a pole next to the state-owned highway.

Leslie Davis is exploring new territory in science, but she doesn’t work in a lab. Opening Saturday at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana is “Regeneration,” a multi-artist exhibit celebrating advances in stem-cell research. Davis is the exhibit’s curator and featured artist. The exhibit is dedicated to the newly opened Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at UC Irvine. The research lab is named after Bill Gross, co-founder of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., and his wife.

During the Friday opening of the new stem cell research center at UC Irvine, the institute’s director credited two parties — voters and donors — for helping to fund what is expected to become a leader in developing possible treatments for spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s disease and other ailments. “Whatever we achieve here, it is your legacy as much as ours,” said director Peter Donovan, who previously led the stem cell program at Johns Hopkins University.

When UC Irvine opens an $80-million research building next week, campus officials and leading scientific researchers hope they will be paving the way for the future of medicine. On Friday, leaders from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), UCI and the newly crowned Sue and Bill Gross Hall: A CIRM Institute, will unveil the 100,000-square-research center. The institute, which was designed exclusively for basic stem-cell research and clinical studies, is one of several CIRM has developed in California.

A new study from UC Irvine suggests that human embryonic stem cells could improve healthy tissue damaged during radiation treatment for brain tumors. Researchers treated rats with radiation, then transplanted stem cells into some of them. They found that the rats that received the stem cells had their learning and memory restored to normal levels within four months after receiving radiotherapy. The rats that didn?t receive stem cells saw a greater than 50% drop in brain function.