Sanford Stem Cell Institute

08/27/2026

🚀 https://bit.ly/4zH5y7t You might have heard about efforts to manufacture organs in space. But what about efforts to manufacture medicine in space — and why would we want to? Learn about pioneers in this burgeoning field — including our director, Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD — and their cutting-edge work in this exciting Science piece, published today. 💊

🚨 Spoiler alert: The article mentions rebecsinib, Jamieson's experimental anti-cancer drug currently in clinical trial at UC San Diego. It was tested on tumor organoids aboard the International Space Station. 🛰️

H/t UC San Diego School of Medicine, NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

08/20/2026

https://bit.ly/3U46jaE Researchers led by our Ludmil B. Alexandrov, PhD, have discovered a previously overlooked pattern of DNA mutations in colorectal cancer. Known as a mutational signature, it was identified in three independent datasets representing nearly 3,000 tumors. Read more about the discovery, fueled by Cancer Grand Challenges, at the link above.

H/t UC San Diego School of Medicine UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Researchers identified a previously overlooked pattern of DNA mutations in colorectal cancer. The pattern had been detected in large cancer-genome datasets before, but researchers had interpreted it as a combination of other, already known mutation patterns.

08/19/2026

Our latest reGEN Podcast 🎙️ episode features U.S. Space Force 🚀 veteran David Beck and his personal journey from life-saving donor to cancer survivor. He now serves as a patient advocate and principal at Space Technologies, Ltd. Watch here https://bit.ly/4ggIkfB or listen 🎧 where you find your podcasts.

This episode of the reGEN Podcast features United States Space Forc...

08/18/2026

🚀 Interested in the incredible space research performed here at UC San Diego — and 250 miles above, on the International Space Station? 🛰️

If so, your next destination should be space.ucsd.edu.

👩‍🚀 Maybe you're fascinated by the harnessing of space's unique environment to benefit human health — astronaut or otherwise. Perhaps you love glimpsing the latest mind-bending shots of the Phantom Galaxy. Or are asteroid collision early warnings of utmost importance to you? Whatever your cosmic curiosity, the site has you covered. 🪐

H/t UC San Diego School of Medicine UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Scripps Institution of Oceanography

08/11/2026

https://bit.ly/4wpS11A "While the rest of us are distracted by large language models and AI agents," researchers like SSCI's Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, are "going straight to the source of intelligence, cultivating living neurons and teaching themselves to program them with electrical signals and hits of dopamine," WIRED's Clarie L. Evans writes in her latest piece, "AI Is Dead. Organoids Are Alive."

Read more about the cutting-edge research of Muotri, a brain organoid pioneer, and how it's fueling the coming OI (organoid intelligence) — not AI — revolution, at the link above.

H/t UC San Diego School of Medicine

08/10/2026

https://bit.ly/3TIEYdM Researchers at UC San Diego have reached an exciting milestone: The first patient has received rebecsinib, an investigational new drug in a Phase 1 clinical trial for people with secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and higher-risk myelofibrosis — two rare blood cancers with very limited treatment options.

SSCI Director Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, a hematologist and researcher who discovered the drug, said she is "thrilled to take it from bench — and a bench on the International Space Station, no less — to the bedside of patients who need it most." Rebecsinib is one of the first drugs to be tested in space.

For many families facing these diseases, this early-stage clinical trial represents something invaluable: hope. ❤️

Learn more about the people behind this work here: https://bit.ly/3TIEYdM

UC San Diego School of Medicine

07/30/2026

Our reGEN Podcast 🎙️ conversation with Andreas Trumpp, PhD, includes fascinating, cutting-edge discoveries for stem cell therapies targeting leukemia, pancreatic cancer and others. Trumpp leads the Stem Cells and Cancer division at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and is the founding director of the Stem Cell Institute HI-STEM. Watch here, https://bit.ly/3S4YcK7, or listen 🎧 where you find your podcasts.

Professor Andreas Trumpp, PhD, discusses his innovative and breakth...

06/29/2026

Tune in for our latest reGEN Podcast 🎙️ conversation with Arun Sharma, PhD, as we discuss his work as a stem cell biologist, focusing on cardiovascular biology and space biosciences. Sharma is credited with the first long-duration cell culture experiment in space on the International Space Station in 2016. Watch here https://bit.ly/4f9G0HZ, or listen 🎧 where you find your podcasts.

Our conversation with Arun Sharma, PhD, discusses his work as a ste...

06/25/2026

Italy boasts one of the world's oldest populations — especially its Natural Park of Cilento region, home to roughly 300 centenarians in robust health. Why do these individuals live decades past the global life expectancy of 73.5 years? Read more about our efforts to uncover the answers — and potential clinical solutions for the rest of us — here: https://bit.ly/4aQynDM.

H/t Sanford Burnham Prebys, Sapienza Università di Roma

06/18/2026

🚀 We're excited to welcome the return of SpaceX CRS-34's scientific payloads, including our own! Read more about our institute's vital aerospace medicine work — with potential benefits for Earth-bound humans — at the link below. 🛰️ https://bit.ly/4w13p48

H/t UC San Diego School of Medicine, International Space Station National Laboratory

The UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute (SSCI) on Wednesday announced the return of its 19th research payload from the International Space Station (ISS) — experiments that will illuminate the role of the cancer stem cell niche and the gene ADAR1 in the disease’s survival and spread. Institu...