Stem Cell Awareness Day 2010
Stem Cell Awareness Day 2010 - October 6th
Current topics in Stem Cell Research with a focus on Parkinson’s disease.
Agenda Included:
Christopher Thomas Scott Director, Stanford Program on Stem Cells in Society, Center for Biomedical Ethics. The ethical and legislative issues around stem cell research.
Tzvia Abramson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, San Jose State University. Stem cell research and education in California and the program at SJSU.
Berta Strulovici, Ph.D. Chief Technology Officer, iPierian. The state of the stem cell private industry in California.
Birgitt Schuele, M.D. Clinical Molecular Geneticist, The Parkinson's Institute. How stem cells are helping us to understand Parkinson's disease.
Presented by: The Parkinson's Institute and CIRM
Speaker Bios
Christopher Thomas Scott
Director of the Stanford Program on Stem Cells in Society, a senior research scholar in the Center for Biomedical Ethics, and a fellow at King’s College and the University of Sheffield. He teaches stem cell biology, policy and ethics. His research focuses on the social, economic, political and ethical dimensions of regenerative medicine. Author of over 70 publications, chapters, and peer-reviewed papers.His most recent book, Stem Cell Now (2007 Penguin) is published in four languages. Currently he is the President and CEO of The Stem Cell Advisors, Inc (www.stemcelladvisors.com), providing research consulting and oversight for the for-and non-profit sectors. Formerly, a co-founder of Acumen Sciences, a research and consulting firm and was a founding editor of the award-winning Acumen Journal of Sciences.
As assistant Vice Chancellor at UCSF he oversaw an array of units, including tech transfer, legal affairs, business development, and assisted with Mission Bay development. He founded the UCSF Program in Bioentrepreneurship, a graduate business training program for scientists. He worked at Stanford for a decade. Positions included: Associate Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine, co-developed one of the nation’s first translational medicine programs. Also co-founded Spectrum, Stanford's clinical trials research unit. Director roles include corporate development and research management for the medical center. One of a handful of executives awarded for contributions to Stanford’s research enterprise. A committee member for the International Society of Stem Cell Research, past member of the Stanford Program in Genomics, Ethics and Society.
Dr. Berta Strulovici, Vice President Research & Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Berta Strulovici is vice president research and chief technology officer at iPierian. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Strulovici served as vice president, Basic Research at Merck Research Laboratories and head of Automated Biology at Merck & Co. At Merck, she was responsible for molecular target identification and led the worldwide development and execution of the early discovery pipeline across all therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Merck in 1996, she held positions at Tularik, Inc. and Syntex Research. Dr. Strulovici received her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and conducted her work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Duke University Medical Center.
Tzvia Segal-Abramson, Ph.D.
Tzvia Segal-Abramson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at San José State University. She completed a Post-doc in Dr. David Relman lab at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Stanford University. Her Ph.D/B.S. was mentored by Prof. Yossi Levy and Prof. Yoav Sharoni- Department of Medical Sciences, Ben Gurion University, Israel. Her Professional Positions include: Associate Professor –Tenure track- Biological Sciences (current) San José State University, San José, CA.; Vice Director of Clinical Laboratory - Maccabi Negev, Israel; managing and supervising microbiology and serology sections.
Birgitt Schüle M.D.
Dr. Birgitt Schüle earned her M.D. in 2001 from the Medical University Lübeck, Germany. In the same year she received her doctoral degree (Dr. med.) in Molecular Neurophysiology at the Georg-August University, Göttingen Germany. During her residency (Ärztin im Praktikum) in Neurology, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Christine Klein and worked on several population screens for mutations in the PARKIN gene, responsible for early-onset parkinsonism and the SGCE gene, which account for ~20% of patients with a very rare movement disorder, called myoclonus dystonia. Awarded by a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and a Dean’s Fellowship at Stanford, Dr. Schüle started her postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Uta Francke, Genetics Department, Stanford University and in parallel she enrolled in the Medical Genetics Training program at Stanford and was certified in 2005 by the American Board of Medical Genetics as a Clinical Molecular Geneticist. She is expanding the Neurogenetics program at the Institute and representing clinical as well as the basic research areas of the program. This includes ongoing genetic studies in families and sporadic cases with parkinsonism. A novel area of research represents the genetic manipulation of human skin cells which can acquire characteristics of human embryonic stem cells after infection with specific genes. Dr. Schüle applies this approach to skin cells from patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) harboring specific mutations in genes known to cause PD. This represents a human cellular model of the disease which will allow us to study disease mechanisms of PD and understand the cause of neurodegeneration.