CORE B: STANFORD CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE AND STEM CELL BIOLOGY

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Our goal is to extend our innovative and highly-effective outreach and education program geographically, beyond the Bay Area of California, with an initiative specifically devoted to national outreach and education in Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. We seek to accomplish this goal by leveraging one half of our current resources in terms of shared research facilities and educational programs (described below) to focus on reproductive biology and health as a central component of our general wellbeing physically, mentally and emotionally. In addition, we also include converse efforts to focus stem cell biology and regenerative medicine on reproductive biology and health as we note that the short- and long-term goals of our Center are in line with those of regenerative medicine as we address critical issues in germ cell development, embryogenesis, and fertility preservation and restoration. Objectives: The outreach and educational component of this application is built on a strong foundation, with generous financial and intellectual support from Stanford University, under the directorship of Renee Reijo Pera and co-director Margaret Fuller. This allows immediate impact, at a national level, on Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology with objectives as follows: 1. Provide physical space that is modern, well-equipped and staffed for a shared research program for individual or small group research experiences. We propose to leverage our commitment of a 2750 sq ft shared research facility, in the newly-constructed Lorry Lokey Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, to accomplish our goals for Outreach and Education in the Stanford University Center for Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. This shared research space is under the supervision of Dr Reijo Pera and can accommodate up to 8 visitors at any one time at all educational levels; we will dedicate 4 bench spaces for emphasis on reproductive biology. Two of these will be dedicated to occupants of 4 weeks or less; 2 will be distributed on a quarterly basis. This arrangement will allow us to host 32 visitors per year. Applications to use this space will include a brief description of research projects relevant to the goals of the SCCPRIR network and focus areas, a description of proposed benefit to be derived, a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation as appropriate. The shared research space provides an extraordinarily well-equipped environment with faculty oversight, as well as, lab management by Dr Vittorio Sebastiano (Instructor and former postdoctoral fellow in the Hans Scholer laboratory) with assistance from Ms Cindy Klein (a talented research associate with Drs Hsueh and Reijo Pera). This Center space incorporates research and teaching space, a modern microscopy suite, viral vector core, embryology suite, extensive tissue culture, wet lab space and our RENEW BioBank of tissue samples and clinical data from the Translational Pilot (V Baker) and other tissues collected through the years (ovarian tissue, testis biopsies, blood DNA, RNAs, embryonic and pluripotent stem cell lines for distribution). Equipment meets needs for single cell analysis, embryonic and pluripotent stem cell culture and differentiation of germ line and somatic cells, time lapse imaging, karyotyping, biochemistry and genetics. In the past 3 years, this interactive structure has contributed to outstanding publications and preliminary data for >$40M in direct funding by jump-starting research programs within the Stanford community and collaborating institutions. Here, we launch this program nationally and expect highly-competitive and innovative projects will emerge to invigorate Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. 2. Provide a formal curriculum that incorporates laboratory-based courses and didactic symposia in Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. We will provide dedicated courses in Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. We propose to accomplish this, on a limited budget as mandated here, by dedicating 2 of our quarterly courses already in existence to Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology. We note that each year, we hold four laboratory-based courses on Human Development and Pluripotent Stem Cells. We will dedicate one of these courses to Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology each summer session and another in early winter (the first quarter of each year). This will allow us to recruit promising minority undergraduates (our future scientists) through SSRP (Stanford Summer Research Program Amgen Scholars), local Stanford undergraduates and those who apply to visit nationally. In addition, we note that we will designate one symposium or workshop (generally a full day) to providing formal education to the larger community of scientists, healthcare professionals and the public. Finally, we will hold our annual retreat in the Center for Reproductive and Stem Cell Biology, as we have for the last two years in January of each year and use a quarter of the available space (approximately 20-25 spaces) to include health care professionals broadly (from trainees to nurses, physicians, embryologists and assistants). We anticipate invitation of 2-5 external seminar speakers per year and more broad representation of invitees across the USA. We note that all projects and the pilot projects will equally contribute to, and receive benefit from, this core Outreach and Educational effort.