UCLA Receives $1M Gift For Stem Cell Symposium

The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA Friday received a $1 million gift that will support an annual stem cell symposium that draws top scientists from around the world to the Westwood campus, UCLA announced.

The gift came from the Bloomfield Family Foundation, which is headed by Margaret "Peggy" Bloomfield of Pacific Palisades, a long-time supporter of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, according to the university.

"We're very grateful for this generous gift that will allow us to continue to pursue our educational mission and hold a symposium that brings together top national and international scientists to share their leading-edge stem cell and regenerative medicine research," said Dr. Owen Witte, director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

"Gathering these researchers together in one place allows them to share ideas and perhaps spark new ones that will lead to novel stem cell therapies to treat a host of diseases for which we currently have no effective treatments."

The gift was announced at the start of the eighth annual stem cell symposium, which featured speakers from UCLA, UC Berkeley, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, the University of Montreal, University Health Network (Canada) and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.

This year's symposium is entitled "Stem Cells and Cancer: Shared Paths, Different Destinations." The symposium is free and open to the public.

--City News Service