Past Lecture Archive
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September 20, 2012
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Tissue Repair: Enhancing bone marrow-derived stem cells for novel cell therapies
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Dr. Fernando Fierro, Stem Cell Research Scientist at the Institute for Regenerative Cures in Sacramento, will address the use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of bone, tissue and other types of wound repairs. 
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have great potential as therapeutic agents due to their ability to differentiate into many cell types allowing for replacement of damaged tissues in autologous and allogeneic transplants. Advances in the understanding of bone marrow-derived MSC biology have led to improvements in determining optimal subpopulations, growth conditions, and gene signatures for therapeutic purposes. Work altering gene/microRNA expression levels of human MSCs for optimization and therapeutic potential for bone repair, non-healing ulcers, limb ischemias, as well as the basic mechanisms involved in differentiation, proliferation, and self-renewal will be discussed.
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Neonatal Stem Cells: A window to perinatal health and resouce for regenerative medicine
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Dr. Suzanne Pontow, Co-Director of the California Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program at the UC Davis Health System, will address current research on neonatal stem cells. 
Neonatal stem cells function as building blocks during fetal life and can be isolated from placenta, umbilical cord, and umbilical cord blood after birth. Often discarded as medical waste, these cells can offer a window to life in the womb and can be used to study diseases that become evident long after birth. Additionally, neonatal stem cells are a source of cells for transplantation and tissue engineering. Current understanding and usage, as well as a new public banking option for California cord blood, will be presented.
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Underwater Treasures of Costa Rica: Fish Parental Care Below the Rainforest
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Dr. Ronald Coleman, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, will address his research of cichlid fishes' behavior in the waters of the Costa Rican Rainforest.
The rainforest is a magical place full of sights and sounds found nowhere else. Some of the most beautiful and intense biology occurs in the waters that run below the rainforest. Dr. Coleman will discuss his research in those waters studying cichlid fishes and their dutiful parental behaviors raising and protecting their offspring in this dynamic environment.
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Fragile Genes & Autism - The Fragile X familiy of disorders: What our children can teach us
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Dr. Paul Hagerman, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at UC Davis and Director of the NeuroTherapeutics Research Institute (NTRI) in Sacramento, will address current research on fragile X disorders.
Fragile X syndrome is the leading known genetic cause of autism, an inherited form of mental impairment, and may also cause neurodegenerative disorders with features of dementia and loss of movement. Mutations in the fragile X gene result in distinct neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Research using adult stem cells is underway to develop models to explain the neuronal dysfunction and for the development of targeted therapies for fragile X disorders.
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War on Parkinsons: How Stem Cells Can Reverse The Ravages of Disease
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Dr. Xianmin Zeng from the Buck Institute for Age Research will address her current research using stem cells to battle the progression of Parkinson’s disease. 
Parkinson’s disease destroys dopamine-producing neurons leading to a loss of voluntary movement and mental decline. Dr. Zeng’s research shows the potential to reverse the damage of this disease using stem cells induced to become neurons. The new neurons replace those lost to the disease restoring neurological function. Her work with stem cells has also provided new screening methods to test novel drugs therapies for Parkinson’s disease treatment.
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Worlds to Discover: Exploring the galaxy for dinosaurs
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Dr. Dale Russell, Adjunct Professor in the Geology Department at Sacramento State, will discuss his research exploring the possibility that dinosaur-like biotic systems are likely to exist somewhere, within the vastness of the Milky Way Galaxy.
We know that unrelated animals resembling snakes, rodents, deer and cats can be found on most continents – but is it possible that they can also be found on many undiscovered planets? Dr. Russell posits that animals recognizably dinosaurian in form may have repeatedly evolved on planets thousands of light-years from earth.
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To Each His Own: How engineers, scientists & doctors are using your own cells to create personalized stem cell medicine
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Dr. John Chapman, president and founder of Stem Cell Partners LLC and adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Sacramento State will discuss how healthcare professionals are joining forces to create regenerative medicine treatments that use a patient’s own cells as the therapeutic agent.
Autologous cell therapy (using the patient’s own cells) is at the forefront of the emerging field of regenerative medicine. The administration of living cells to sites of tissue injury or disease are offering benefits ranging from avoiding amputation of limbs for patients with severe peripheral artery disease to enhancing cosmetic surgery outcomes in plastic surgery patients. By using the patient’s own cells, the risk of disease transmission and tissue rejection is avoided.
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Going Viral: Using viruses and bone marrow stem cells in the fight against diseases
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Dr. Donald Kohn, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics(MIMG) & Pediatrics at UCLA, will discuss his research engineering viruses to deliver genes to stem cells for re-transplantation back into patients.
Bone marrow from diseased patients can be removed and the damaged gene within the hematopoietic stem cells (the progenitors for blood and immune cells found in the bone marrow) can be repaired by using retro-viruses to deliver the corrected gene. Dr. Kohn will talk about his research on using viruses to deliver genes to the hematopoietic stem cells and methods to ensure that the viral vectors his team uses are both effective in delivering the corrected gene and safe for use in the clinical setting. In addition, he will discuss his current clinical trials using these new and improved virus vectors to cure a severe immune deficiency disorder (SCID) and sickle cell anemia.
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About Face: Using symmetry to measure the health of ancient Romans
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Dr. Samantha Hens from the Department of Anthropology at Sacramento State will discuss her research using three-dimensional modeling techniques to study craniofacial fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of ancient Roman populations.
Her research focuses on the skull's shape. Symmetrical features are often perceived as indicators of good health, virility and even survivability, while fluctuating asymmetrical features suggest underlying genetic problems, ill health or environmental stress. The study attempts to show a positive association between FA and stress and identify specific regions of the cranium that are most likely to show developmental stressors.
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A Capacity for Healing: Treating injuries with electricity
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Dr. Min Zhao, from the Department of Dermatology and Ophthalmology at the UC Davis, will address his research into healing injuries by generating electrical fields to recruit stem cells to the injury site.
Experimental evidence suggests a profound role for bioelectricity in wound healing and regeneration. Applied electric fields have been shown to control regeneration polarity in flatworms, in limb and tail regeneration in amphibians, and in ocular lens regeneration in rodents, and they have been found to play an overriding guidance role in directing cell migration in epithelial wound healing. Electrical signals also guide stem cell migration and division. Imaging techniques have provided significant insights into cellular and molecular responses to this “unconventional” signal.
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Breathe Easy: Using stem cells to cure respiratory diseases
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Dr. Martin Birchall, a throat surgeon and Professor of Laryngology at the University College London, will discuss how his research is helping patients with respiratory diseases.
Conventional treatments are severely limited to cure respiratory disorders. Regenerative medicine has considerable potential to bridge this gap between what present therapy can achieve and the restoration of normal function. Birchall is a specialist in the area of the throat known as the larynx. In 2008, he was co-leader of the team which performed the world's first stem-cell based organ transplant; one in which the airway of a patient was replaced.
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Watts on the Horizon: Smart Grid delivers electricity efficiently
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Dr. Emir Jose Macari, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Sacramento State, will explain the fundamentals of Smart Grid and each of its components as well as outline the various projects that are underway in our region in support of this major initiative.
In mid 2008, Sacramento State launched an important initiative that would leverage on three major components from the College of Engineering and Computer Science: The only Power Engineering program in the state of California, the Center for Information Assurance and Security (Cyber Security) and the Center for Clean Energy. These three programs: power electrical engineering, communications networking and cyber security, and clean energy technology (solar, wind and biofuels) form the main components of what has come to be known as the Smart Grid.
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Bad Blood: The search for a cure
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dr. Tim Townes, director of the STEM Cell Institute and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, will address a new gene therapy approach to treating blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia using adult stem cells.
Dr. Townes’ group has produced induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from skin fibroblasts of human sickle cell patients either before or after correction of the mutation that causes sickle cell anemia. Corrected patient iPS cells can subsequently be cultured so as to become hematopoietic stem cells that can produce all types of blood cells for future transplantation back into these patients for a cure. These studies provide a foundation for new treatments of sickle cell disease in humans and for treatments of other inherited and acquired disorders such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
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From Classical Philosophy to Quantum Mechanics: An evolving reality
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Dr. Michael Epperson, founder and director of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at Sacramento State and a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, will explore the philosophical implications of recent innovations in quantum mechanics and the resulting challenges for the conventional classical world view.
In classical mechanics, nature’s fundamental constituents are material substances (things); in quantum mechanics, they are units of relation (events). “In the classical world view, things have histories; in the quantum world view, things are histories,” says Epperson. He will explore how ‘classical reality’ is modeled from a more fundamental quantum mechanical description of nature.
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HIV Gene Therapy
Tuesday, December 5, 2009
Dr. Gerhard Bauer, Director of the UC Davis Good Manufacturing Practice Facility, will address a new gene therapy approach to treating Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
Gene therapy for HIV is based on the concept that human cells can be made resistant to the detrimental effects of HIV by the insertion of anti-HIV genes into the genome of HIV target cells. Bauer, in collaboration with Dr. Joseph Anderson of the UC Davis stem cell program, has developed a highly potent combination of anti-HIV genes that simultaneously target 3 different parts of the HIV life cycle preventing the virus from entering and integrating. This novel approach offers a possible path to a cure for HIV.
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The Future Of Fighting Diseases
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Dr. Diane Krause, a Yale Professor and leading authority in stem cell research, will address new discoveries in regenerative medicine.
In 2001 Dr. Krause lead a team of researchers who discovered that adult stem cells taken from the bone marrow of mice can differentiate into epithelial cells for the repair of organs as diverse as liver, lung, and intestines. This research led to one of the first reports of marrow-derived stem cells contributing to tissue repair, which is now an exploding field. This lecture is funded through a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine grant in collaboration with the UC Davis Stem Cell Program.
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Biomedical Engineering
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Dr. Warren Smith, a Sacramento State professor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering who specializes in biomedical engineering will discuss the development of new medical monitors at Sacramento State.
These new monitors have been made possible by miniature electronics and computers, digital signal processing, and wireless technologies. Dr. Smith will describe several projects he and his students have designed using this new technology, including the development of a depth-of-anesthesia monitor based on the patient's brain waves (the electroencephalogram, or EEG) to reduce the chance of patient awareness during anesthesia.
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Ethnomathematics
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Daniel Orey, a Sacramento State professor of Teacher Education who specializes in mathematics and multicultural education, will discuss Ethnomathematics. A research program developed by Brazilian philosopher, educator, and mathematician Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, Ethnomathematics uses aspects of mathematics modeling to study the relationship between mathematics and culture.
Ethnomathematicians study the diverse contexts in which mathematics is used outside of academic situations. An ethnomathematics program provides a basis for acknowledging mathematical structures in non-western societies and possesses the power to connect culture to mathematics. In this talk, Dr. Orey will share examples of cultural and mathematical practices he has come across in his travels around the world, including Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Nepal, and Israel.
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Under the Microscope
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Jan Nolta, a Sacramento State alum and director of the UC Davis Stem Cell Program since 2006, will discuss research that suggests stem cells can be used to repair tissue
Nolta says human stem cells from adult sources have been shown in laboratories to promote the repair of damaged tissues. Different populations of stem cells have been shown to contribute to the regeneration of muscle, neural tissue, the liver, the heart and the vasculature. While the potential benefits could signal a radical change in medical treatment, Nolta says more research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which stem cells work.
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