UCI scientists to research stem cells with grant funds

Two UCI scientists will receive $1.6 million of state money to help develop devices that can track and sort stem cells.

The money comes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and it is aimed at tools to defeat roadblocks in stem cell research.

Researcher Lisa Flanagan’s team is working on a device that could sort stem cells by a kind of electrical signature. If they are successful, the machine could make it far cheaper to find only the cells destined for the nervous system, for example.

Her team will receive $872,000 over two years. Another $720,000 is going to radiological sciences professor Orhan Nalcioglu, who plans to build an imaging device that could follow stem cells in the body. Tracking those cells is a significant issue in stem cell science, as it’s a way to find out whether they migrate to the right place and actually treat disorders.

The device would combine two existing technologies: high-field MRI, which uses a magnetic field to view the body, and single photon emission computed tomography, which uses gamma rays to make an image.

— Michael Alexander