LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Jan A. Nolta, Ph.D., an internationally known scientist who has conducted groundbreaking "bench to bedside" research using stem cells to assist with tissue regeneration, was featured in the Saban Distinguished Lecturer Series at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007.
Dr. Nolta, director of the stem cell program at the UC Davis School of Medicine, presented, "Human Stem Cells for Tissue Repair," which discussed the use of human hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells to speed and enhance the healing process after the infliction of cardiac or vascular damage.
"We are especially pleased to have Jan visit us," Dr. Kohn said. "She began her scientific career at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and we are very proud of her many accomplishments since then. The California Stem Cell Initiative (Proposition 71) afforded the opportunity for her to return to California in a new leadership role."
Dr. Nolta's research focuses specifically on moving stem cells to cardiac and vascular tissue sites immediately after a cardiac infarction or peripheral vascular damage. The cells can encourage the presence of stromal-derived factor 1 and hepatocyte growth factor, which are key to minimizing damage, producing new blood flow and speeding the healing process. These factors are secreted naturally by the body after an injury, but usually cease within 48 hours. "The cells tip the balance," Dr. Nolta says, between potential scarring that can have a lifetime effect, or a healing process that leaves milder long-term damage.
Dr. Nolta's team is working with researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine -- where she held faculty and research posts until last year -- to measure the implications of direct stem cell injections into heart attack victims. Under the research protocol, heart attack victims have bone marrow harvested from their body almost immediately after inpatient admission. Stem cells are then harvested from the marrow and injected at the site of the infarction. The cells encourage the growth of new blood vessels, or coronary collateral beds, that bypass the artery blockage. The procedure is expected to be tested at UC Davis, where Dr. Nolta is overseeing extensive renovations of its stem cell laboratory to help implement this research.
Research also is being performed on animal subjects such as dogs and horses to treat eschemia induced by broken limbs, and peripheral vascular disease.
Dr. Nolta and her team also are examining the use of similar procedures to repair livers damaged by cirrhosis or severe viral infections.
Prior to joining the UC Davis faculty, Dr. Nolta spent four years as scientific director of the cell processing and gene therapy Good Manufacturing Practice facility at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her earlier research focused on biology, cell cycle, transduction and engraftment of human hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells in immune deficient mouse xenotransplantation models. Dr. Nolta also served as an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University.
Dr. Nolta has published more than 75 peer-reviewed manuscripts and authored 15 book chapters and numerous invited papers. She edited the book Genetic Engineering of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, which was published last year. She also has served as an editor or editorial board member for six scientific journals, and served on more than 40 National Institutes of Health review panels.
Dr. Nolta received a bachelors of science degree from Cal State Sacramento and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California. She was a post-doctoral fellow with Donald B. Kohn, M.D., acting director of The Saban Research Institute, director of the Gene, Immune and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr. Nolta also was an assistant professor at the Keck School of Medicine.
Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been treating the most seriously ill and injured children in Los Angeles for more than a century, and it is acknowledged throughout the United States and around the world for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health.
Childrens Hospital is one of America's premier teaching hospitals, affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California for more than 75 years. It is a national leader in pediatric research.
Today, physician-scientists at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles address the most vexing pediatric medical problems and discover important new therapies for children everywhere, including advances in cancer care, gene transfer, stem cell and organ transplantation and diabetes. The Saban Research Institute is among the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States, with 128 investigators at work on 267 laboratory studies, clinical trials and community-based research and health services. It is one of the few free-standing research centers in the nation to combine scientific laboratory inquiry with patient clinical care -- dedicated exclusively to children -- and its base of knowledge is widely considered to be among the best in pediatric medicine.
Programs and initiatives at The Saban Research Institute include the Cancer Program; the Cardiovascular Research Program; the Community, Health Outcomes and Intervention Research Program; the Developmental Biology Program; the Gene, Immune and Stem Cell Therapy Program; the Childrens Imaging Research Program; the Microbial Pathogens Initiative; and the Neuroscience Program. Clinical research is conducted under the auspices of the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases; the Childrens Clinical Investigation Center; The Heart Institute; the Childrens Orthopaedic Center; The Vision Center; and the USC-CHLA Institute for Pediatric Clinical Research.
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