Stem Cell Research Center: Neuroscience Program

Our Competitive Advantage

Empowered by the distinctive One Health approach of UCI Health Affairs that transcends disciplinary boundaries, the Neuroscience Program will comprise faculty and staff from the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences which includes the schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, population and public health and UCI Health, our regional healthcare delivery system partnered with the trailblazing Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. With brilliant minds working together instead of in silos, our teams will push the boundaries of innovation and facilitate fundamental discoveries in science.

The SCRC has outstanding research and training programs spanning the disciplines of medicine, biology, engineering, humanities, art, law and ethics. SCRC faculty currently hail from seven UCI schools and over 22 departments. In addition to the engagement of diverse investigators across the campus who are directly working in cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicine, the SCRC supports a wide array of campus investigators through its Core Laboratory operations, and plans are underway to expand UCI’s flow cytometry, mass cytometry and gene editing capabilities.

The SCRC provides state-of-the-art infrastructure to support basic, translational and clinical stem cell research. Our team is developing a responsive and adaptable pipeline of testing for cell-based neurological therapeutics. The SCRC is the origin of first-in-human clinical trials for spinal cord injury and retinal disease, and our investigators have launched multiple local companies focused on regenerative medicine advances. This is a unique area of strength at UCI, and indeed across stem cell and regenerative medicine centers both in California and across the nation.

Training at the SCRC has also received recognition from leading organizations. For example, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the world’s largest institution dedicated to regenerative medicine, has supported several initiatives at the SCRC making the center a leader at UCI for training grants received to date. At the undergraduate level, training at the SCRC includes pairing students with faculty mentors to help learn hands-on lab skills, good manufacturing procedures and clinical research coordination. At the postgraduate level, each SCRC trainee is assigned a formal research mentor and a clinical mentor, offering a complete bench-to-bedside experience. This is a strength that will translate to the future success of the Neuroscience Program in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building.