UC Davis will celebrate the grand opening of its stem cell research facility this afternoon in Sacramento. It’s called the Institute for Regenerative Cures and it’s the largest regenerative medical laboratory North of Los Angeles.
The facility’s director, Doctor Jan Nolta, says research will focus on finding therapies specific to a patient’s body.
Nolta: “We can do medicine in a dish. We can see what type of medicines would best help that patient’s own cells and so this is really ushering in a new era of regenerative medicine, you know, using the patient’s own cells.”
Nolta says the facility is capable of doing stem cell therapies for six patients a day. Clinical trials will include people with Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s diseases…along with autism and heart patients.
The institute found its home in a building on Stockton Boulevard. It’ll eventually house more than 200 scientists and laboratory personnel. It’s funded by the state’s stem cell research organization approved by voters in 2004.
