CCMB's Shi One of Two USC Recipients of Stem Cell Grant.
01/01/2008

Two USC researchers, including a School of Dentistry investigator, will delve further into the promises of stem cells with a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
By Beth Dunham

USC will receive approximately $6.3 million over five years from the CIRM New Faculty Awards, which fund salary and research support for young investigators to build innovative and robust stem cell research programs in the state of California. Songtao Shi, assistant professor in the USC School of Dentistry’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, and Mohammad Pashmforoush, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, received the awards.

"We are very pleased that our faculty at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC School of Dentistry were recognized by CIRM for their potential significant contributions to the stem cell field,” says Martin Pera, director of USC’s Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. "The funding will enable new researchers to undertake pilot projects and generate preliminary data."

Shi’s group will receive $3.2 million over the five-year period and will investigate mesenchymal stem cells’ potential to regenerate tissue to treat defects and diseases, including jaw bone necrosis caused by bisphosphonate.

“There are many defects that can be present in the orofacial region,” Shi says. “We want to know how we can eventually use stem cells to treat those defects and diseases.”
In the next few years, Shi hopes to work with larger animal models such as pigs, an important step in eventually progressing to human clinical trials for stem cell treatment.

“Once we use stem cell treatments on live animal models, it will provide a strong base for the future,” Shi says. “It’s an important step for us to take that will provide information for future clinical use.”

Shi adds, it’s not just his own research strengths that earned this award.

“We have a lot of good staff here at CCMB and the rest of the School of Dentistry,” Shi says. “The environment and resources here are great.”

Harold Slavkin, D.D.S, dean of the USC School of Dentistry, has great confidence in the future potential of Shi’s research into stem cell therapy.

"Songtao Shi is an enormous talent, and his pioneering studies with mesenchymal stem cells will soon become new therapeutic approaches for health care," Slavkin says.