World renown stem cell scientist moves research to Stanford University with CIRM award

When sports teams lure a star player away from a rival team they don’t shy away from boasting about their new signing and what a coup it was to get him or her. The world of academic stem cell research is a tad more subdued than sports, but the players can still get quite worked up, in their own way, about a new star coming to campus.

Stanford is celebrating, and rightly so, their recruitment of Dr. Hiromitsu Nakauchi to their stem cell program. Dr. Nakauchi is considered one of the leading scientists in stem cell biology in the world, so luring him away from his post at the University of Tokyo is no small achievement. An achievement, we should mention, that was done thanks to a $6.15 million Research Leadership Award from the stem cell agency.

A news release from Stanford University quotes Irv Weissman, the director of their stem cell institute, talking about the recruitment:

“We are very excited to be bringing Dr. Nakauchi to Stanford. He is one of the world’s leading stem cell scientists. His recent discoveries that tissues and organs can be developed from pluripotent stem cells of one species in the body of an animal of another species promise an important path to using stem cell biology to advance human regenerative medicine.”

CIRM President Alan Trounson, PhD, is equally lavish in his praise of Dr. Nakauchi, calling him “an extraordinary talent,” and saying:

“I think he is one of the most accomplished scientists that I have ever met. It is going to considerably enhance our capacity to deliver the remarkable potential of stem cell science to have him working together with the Californian stem cell research community. I look forward to the outcomes of his research, as will the patients who are awaiting the delivery of these new therapies.”

As we point out in our news release on Dr. Nakauchi’s move to Stanford, this is the fifth world-class stem cell researcher we have helped recruit to California through our Research Leadership Awards. Having people of this caliber move here to carry out their research is one of the reasons why California has become a world leader in stem cell research.

Kevin McCormack