UR Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute

The University of Rochester Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute was founded in 2008 in recognition of the tremendous promise that the discipline of stem cell biology offers for our understanding of development, disease and discovery of new treatments for a wide range of afflictions. Much as the discoveries of antibiotics and vaccination revolutionized our abilities to treat disease and reduce suffering, the discoveries of stem cell biology are poised to provide similar benefits

The University of Rochester is home to a rich and diverse stem cell faculty, with more than 40 faculty from 15 different departments, and more than 35 research track faculty and senior research fellows. These laboratories are collectively home to over 200 staff, including multiple Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, M.D./Ph.D. students and technical fellows. Currently committed research awards, center grants, training grants and industry sponsored programs generated by this faculty represent over $60 million in direct cost commitments. Several of the programs at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) are among the top programs both nationally and internationally. For example, there is particular strength in the field of neuromedicine, particularly in the context of the stem and progenitor cells giving rise to the glial cells of the central nervous system, with the faculty at URMC including several of the international leaders in such research. The Center for Musculoskeletal Research is rated as the No. 1 orthopaedics group in the United States in NIH funding. In the newly evolving field of cancer stem cell biology, a team of leading individuals also has been assembled, with drugs discovered through this effort already entering clinical trials. This intellectual environment is associated with large numbers of patent applications and with multiple opportunities for translating discoveries into therapies.

The research interests of faculty associated with University of Rochester’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute range from model organisms to treatment of neurological disease, from investigations on the origins of red blood cells to the developing approaches to the treatment of fractures and osteoporosis, from studies on how to protect the body from the toxic effects of current cancer treatments to the development of new treatments that target cancer cells while sparing the normal cells of the body.