Two UC San Diego researchers were awarded grants totaling $2.5 million today from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Dr. Martin Marsala, a professor of anesthesiology at the UCSD School of Medicine, was awarded $1.3 million to develop methods to prolong the survival of therapeutic stem cells grafted to the central nervous system.
UCSD professor of biology Yang Xu, an immunologist, was awarded $1.2 million from the CIRM to explore improving the human immune system's tolerance to grafted tissues derived from human embryonic stem cells.
The grants were among $25 million approved by the CIRM's Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee during its meeting in San Diego today for 19 transplantation immunology research projects.
The CIRM is the agency formed to distribute $3 billion in funding approved by voters in 2004 for stem cell research in California.
