Three UCR Stem Cell Students Win NSF Fellowships  

             Congratulations  to three UCR graduate students who recently learned that they have been awarded prestigious NSF pre-doctoral Fellowships to help them undertake work in stem cell biology. The awards  went to Maricela Maldanado, Thanh Nguyen, and Barbara Davis. The Fellowships will provide stipends for each student for three years.

The UCR Stem Cell Core Facility is funded with more than $2.8 million dollars by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) . It comprises 2,000 square feet research laboratory with resources for cell culture, molecular biology, and cell imaging. Our goal is to provide stem cell culture facilities and instrumentation for research involving pluripotent stem cells.

The Core has derived several human and mouse induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines for distribution. We also provide human embryonic stem cell (HESC) and iPSC lines (designated as 'Riv', Riverside iPSC lines) for researchers at UCR and nearby universities. The Core accomodates laboratory space for culturing stem cells and equipment for analyzing data. Our equipment for culture and analysis includes a BioStation CT time-lapse imaging incubator, a karyotyping workstation, a flow cytometer, a magnetic activated cell sorter (MACS), a 384-platform real-time PCR machine, fluorescence microscopes, an X-ray irradiator, an AMAXA nucleofector device, a Luminex multiplex analyser, and other supporting instruments.

Various services (mycoplasma screenings, culture and pluripotency validation amongst others) and training courses in human embryonic stem cell culture are also offered by the Academic Coordinator.