June 13, 2013

GOV. MALLOY ANNOUNCES AWARD OF STEM CELL RESEARCH FUNDS

(HARTFORD, CT) - Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced the award of $9.8 million in stem cell research funds to 23 Connecticut-based researchers. The awards were made by the State of Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee at its Monday grant review meeting in Farmington.

"Connecticut's investment in stem cells continues to position the state on the cutting edge of biomedical research," said Governor Malloy. "These grants are critical to keeping and recruiting top scientists and help make possible innovative research that serves to improve people's lives."

One hundred and nine stem cell fund applications were received in January 2013. The Connecticut Stem Cell Research Peer Review Committee reviewed these applications in accordance with National Institutes of Health guidelines and provided to the Advisory Committee its recommendations with respect to the scientific merits of each application.

"Connecticut's stem cell program continues to fund some of the best basic and advanced stem cell research," said Department of Public Health Commissioner and Advisory Committee Chairperson Dr. Jewel Mullen. "This cutting-edge research holds great promise for clinical applications that will help address a number of significant health challenges."

The following awards were made by the Connecticut Stem Cell Advisory Committee:

Next Generation Bone Graft Substitute Through Osteogenic Differentiation of hMSC by a Small Molecule
University of Connecticut Health Center
Wai Hong Lo (Kevin)
$200,000

Differentiating Human Embryonic Stem Cells Down the Axial Skeletal Lineage
University of Connecticut Health Center
Peter Maye
$200,000

Specification of Poised Epigenomic Marks in ES Cells
University of Connecticut Health Center
$200,000

Establishing an Epigenetic Memory of Tissue-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Superior Chondrogenic Differentiation Capacity
University of Connecticut Health Center
Rosa Guzzo
$200,000

Vascular Growth Factor Signaling in Human Neural Stem Cells
Yale University
Jean-Leon Thomas
$200,000

Hypoxia and Maintenance of Human Cancer Stem Cells
Yale University
Zhong Yun
$200,000

Testing the Oxidative Stress Theory of Ataxia-Telangiectasia Pathology Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Yale University
Gerald Shadel
$200,000

Characterize Nuclear Lamina-Associated Chromatin in Human ES Cells
Yale University
Jie Yao
$200,000

Elucidating the Role of Stem Cells in the Skin Tumor Pilomatricoma by In Vivo Imaging
Yale University
Panteleimon Rompolas
$200,000

Modeling Chronic Pain Condition with iPS Cells from Patients with "Man on Fire" Syndrome for Better Pharmaco-Genomic Analysis and Drug Testing
Yale University
Stephen Waxman
$200,000

The Role of Adipocyte Stem Cell in Lymphatic Vessel Differentiation
Yale University
Nancy Ruddle
$200,000

Cell Therapy with ISL1+ Cardiac Progenitor Cells for Cardiac Repair After Myocardial Infarction
Yale University
Oscar Bartulos
$200,000

Potential of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Mesenchymal Cells for Lung Tissue Engineering
Yale University
Sumati Sundaram
$200,000

Human ES-Derived Neuronal Cell Culture Systems for Investigating West Nile Virus Pathogenesis
Yale University
Priti Kumar
$200,000

Generation of Customized Anti-Tumor T Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells (hPS) Derived Embryoid Bodies (EB) for Immunotherapy of Human Melanoma
University of Connecticut Health Center
Arvind Chhabra
$600,000

Using hESCs and iPSCs to Test the Significance of Hereditary Cancer-Associated Variants
University of Connecticut Health Center
Christopher Heinen
$750,000

Uncovering Molecular Pathways Disrupted in Prader-Willi Syndrome
University of Connecticut Health Center
Kristen Martins-Taylor
$750,000

Pluripotency and Heterochromatin Topology
University of Connecticut Health Center
Tae Hoon Kim
$750,000

Improving the Fidelity of Human iPSC with Epigenetic and Chemical Genetic Approaches
University of Connecticut Health Center
Andrew Xiao
$532,500

HESC-Derived GABAergic Neurons for Epilepsy Therapy
Wesleyan University
Janice Naegele
$1,488,229

Developing a Potential Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis Using hESC-derived MSCs
ImStem Biotechnology
Ren-He Xu
$1,129,271

UConn-Wesleyan Stem Cell Core
University of Connecticut Health Center
Ren-He Xu
$500,000

Continued Service and Technology Development at the Yale Stem Cell Center Cores
Yale University
Haifan Lin
$500,000

For additional information, please visit www.ct.gov/dph/stemcell

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For Immediate Release: June 13, 2013

Twitter: @GovMalloyOffice

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