UC Merced's stem cell facility taking shape

Construction on the UC Merced Stem Cell Instrumentation Foundry is expected to be finished by late December, yet the university is still in the process of raising money for equipment.

UC Merced needs $1.3 million to buy research equipment. The school already has $75,000 in private and public donations, said Maria Pallavicini, dean of the UC Merced School of Natural Sciences.

Pallavicini said she hopes to get enough donations for equipment by the time the foundry is completed.

The facility, which costs $7.5 million, is being built on campus in the school's Science and Engineering Building.

It was originally slated to be built at the former Castle Air Force Base, but plans changed in 2009.

When completed, this facility will allow investigators to study the behavior of individual stem cells in precisely controlled environments, Pallavicini said.

"This facility is going to enable investigators at UC Merced and elsewhere to study cell behavior," she said. "It's a unique facility because it will not only provide tools, but will facilitate collaborations between other scientists. It's a unique facility because it provides the tools and the capabilities to investigators who wouldn't be able to do this work otherwise, because this will allow scientists to custom design labs-on-a-chip."

In 2008, UC Merced received $4.36 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) toward construction of the facility.

CIRM was created in 2005 with the passage of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, which provided $3 billion in funding for research at California universities and research institutions.

When completed, supporters hope the lab will be a catalyst for the formation and growth of the biotechnology industry in the Merced area.

The state-of-the-art facility will also be a tool shared with researchers across the state, members of the stem cell committee said last week at their meeting at UC Merced.

In August, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth froze all spending on projects related to embryonic stem cell research.

CIRM issued a statement late last month saying that the decision will disrupt some of the advances happening to bring human embryonic stem cell research-based therapies to patients in need.

Pallavicini said she hopes that by the time the lab is completed, the ban will be lifted, but that there are other ways of studying stem cells.

"The ban is on a use of human embryonic stem cells; there are other types of human stem cells that can be used in research," she said. "The fact that there is a current ban on human embryonic stem cells will not preclude the use of this facility to answer some of the questions in stem cell biology."

Meanwhile, researchers are eagerly awaiting the completion of the facility, she said. Faculty members are waiting to perform a number of experiments once it's open.

Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.