Posts Tagged: UCLA

News

Will California follow Oregon’s ‘strategic’ approach to psychedelics?

Image courtesy of 24K-Production

There is a growing acceptance in mental health circles that some psychedelics – particularly psilocybin, MDMA, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and mescaline – have great promise for treating certain mental health disorders, including post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. But some observers fear legalizing it could kick off a psilocybin Gold Rush that emphasizes profits over patient care.

News

Rare stem cell success gives young girl life outside the bubble

Sheersha Sulack and Donald Kohn (with glasses) earlier this year on the day she received a cell treatment.

One year ago this month, five-year-old Sheersha Sulack asked Santa to bring her a suitcase to carry her toys with her for an arduous treatment that her parents hoped would save her from a rare, life-threatening affliction known as the bubble baby disease. Development of the therapy is part of a unique effort that has put the Golden State at the forefront of the development of gene and cell therapies.

News

Questions dog new UC Board of Regents appointee

Gregory Sarris, image from Becoming Story YouTube book trailer

An esteemed author and scholar as well as a long-time tribal leader, Greg Sarris would seem to be a natural fit on the UC Board of Regents. But scratch below the surface and you’ll find that Sarris has led such a controversial life that he could face scrutiny when his appointment is reviewed sometime next year.

News

California researchers vie for millions in stem cell dollars

Photo by ANDREI ASKIRKA via Shutterstock

Nine California research organizations will vie behind closed doors this week as the state’s stem cell agency scores their bids to kick off what would be a first-in-the-nation, $80 million manufacturing network to speed the development of revolutionary medical therapies.

News

UC strike over, but questions remain over new contracts

Royce Hall at UCLA, one of four original buildings at the university's Westwood campus. (Photo: Ken Wolter, via Shutterstock)

The longest walkout in the history of U.S. higher education is over, but a critical question remains: Will the new contracts do enough to improve the living and working conditions that drove the academic workers to launch the 40-day strike?

News

Clinical trials okayed for children with ‘bubble boy’ disease

Andrea Fernandez and her son Jakob, who suffers from 'bubble boy' disease. (Photo: Courtesy of Fernandez family)

Nearly three years after a British firm abandoned a successful therapy for the life-threatening “bubble baby” disease, children will again be treated in a clinical trial backed with millions of dollars from the state of California. “It’s the best Christmas gift ever,” said the mother of an afflicted child, Andrea Fernandez. 

News

UC’s academic union workers in week two of strike

Strikers and their allies at a Nov. 16 rally on the campus of UC Davis. (Photo: David Kn, via Shutterstock)

About 48,000 academic union workers at the University of California are in the second week of a strike at UC’s 10 campuses, from San Diego north to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They walked off their jobs on Nov. 14 amid complaints of unfair labor practices, an action that closed some classrooms and research labs.

News

Former Assembly Speaker John Pérez eyes top state stem cell job

A major research facility of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine at UC Merced. (Photo: CIRM)

Two persons with deep ties to the University of California (UC) have been nominated for the position of chair of the governing board of the $12 billion California stem cell agency. They are John A. Pérez, former chair of the UC board of regents and former leader of the state Assembly, and Emilie Marcus, executive strategy officer at the UCLA School of Medicine. It is now up to the 35-member stem cell agency board to choose between the two.

News

Clinical trial into ‘bubble baby disease’ back on track

Baby Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro on the day she received a gene therapy stem cell transplant.(Photo: UCLAhealth.org)

Twenty children seeking treatment for a rare affliction called the “bubble baby disease” today have some big-time, good news concerning a life-saving genetic therapy that they were once denied as the result of a tangled affair that included private profit and the public funding of cutting-edge scientific research.  

News

‘Bubble baby’ treatment shifted to stem cell agency, UCLA

Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro’s medical team gathers around her on the day she received her gene-therapy stem-cell transplant. (Photo: Padilla-Vaccaro family, via UCLA Health)

A London-based biotech firm has given up its life-saving treatment for the bubble baby disease and turned it over to California’s $12 billion stem cell agency and UCLA, where it was developed with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

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