UC Davis hires stem cell expert for new program

San Francisco Business Times - 9:45 AM PDT Thursdayby Celia Lamb

The University of California, Davis has recruited a stem cell expert well-known in her field to head its new stem cell research program.

Jan Nolta, the scientific director of a cell processing and gene therapy laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, plans to start work at UC Davis in November.

UC Davis plans to renovate a building on Stockton Boulevard to incorporate a 100,000-square-foot stem cell laboratory.

The university also has recruited Gerard Bauer, the laboratory director of the Washington University cell processing and gene therapy facility, to oversee the design and management of the Stockton Boulevard laboratory. He will join UC Davis on Sept. 1.

Nolta is originally from California and received her undergraduate degree from California State University Sacramento. She worked for several years in blood and genetics laboratories at the UC Davis Medical Center before earning a doctorate in molecular microbiology from University of Southern California. She has worked as an associate professor of medicine at Washington University since 2002.

Nolta has studied how to direct stem cells taken from adults to repair tissue damage with the aim of developing new treatments for diabetes, liver disease and heart attacks. She also developed a "bank" for frozen cells, derived from adult bone marrow, that can regenerate blood vessels and scarred or dead tissues.

Sacramento Business Journal