In 2008, a landmark achievement put our young center on the global scientific map. Four newly recruited faculty members became the first in California —and among the first in the world — to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from human skin cells.

These cells have transformed biomedical research by allowing scientists to reprogram a patient’s skin or blood cells back to a pluripotent state and thenguide them to develop into any cell type. This breakthrough opened the door to an unlimited source of patient-specific cells for disease modeling, drugdiscovery and personalized cell therapies.

Scientists at our center and beyond are working to develop therapies that use iPSC-derived cells to replace cells and tissues — like those of the heart, brainand liver — that have been lost to injury, aging or disease.

Years later, the same four scientists who combined their diverse expertise to make this discovery continue to leverage iPSCs in their labs — leading majoradvances that are shaping their fields.

Each year, over 300,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Even after surgery and chemotherapy, the disease often returns in a moreaggressive form, leaving patients in urgent need of new treatments.

CAR-T cell therapy, which engineers a patient’s immune cells to fight cancer, holds promise but must be customized for each patient, causing delays andincreasing costs.

To address this, immunotherapy expert Dr. Lili Yang developed an innovative approach to produce large quantities of CAR-equipped invariant natural killer T(CAR-NKT) cells from blood stem cells. Known as the “special forces” of the immune system, NKT cells are highly effective at fighting cancer and, crucially,compatible with any patient’s immune system.

Yang’s ultimate goal is for these CAR-NKT cells to be mass-produced and shipped to hospitals around the world, ensuring this therapy is readily available topatients as soon as they need it.

Now, Yang is teaming up with gynecologic surgeon Dr. Sanaz Memarzadeh, bioinformatician Dr. Matteo Pellegrini and biostatistician Dr. Jin Zhou to completethe extensive studies necessary to bring this therapy to a clinical trial for ovarian cancer.

Bringing breakthrough discoveries to patients requires more than just innovative ideas. It demands access to cutting-edge technology, highly skilled technicalteams and advanced manufacturing facilities — resources that individual labs can’t sustain on their own.

That’s where our center’s shared research cores and clinical translation infrastructure come in.

From advanced DNA sequencers to cleanroom facilities that meet stringent FDA standards for cell and gene therapy manufacturing, we provide the tools andexpertise to streamline research and eliminate roadblocks. These resources promote collaboration, increase efficiency and accelerate the development ofnew therapies.

Thanks to this infrastructure, groundbreaking therapies can be discovered, manufactured and tested in clinical trials — all right here on the UCLA campus.

Dr. Ranmal Samarasinghe’s epilepsy research is driven by the patients he sees in the clinic, many of whom have no effective treatment options. “Epilepsy isnot a curable disease,” he explained. “Thirty percent of patients don’t respond to medications, and that hasn’t changed in 100 years.”

This lack of progress is largely due to the challenge of studying disease processes directly in living human brain tissue. Samarasinghe is addressing thisobstacle head-on through his work developing brain organoids, tiny 3D brain-like structures grown from human stem cells.

Three confocal images of brain organoids derived from human iPSCs. Credit: Samarasinghe Lab

Samarasinghe first learned to develop and refine these critical models while working in the lab of neurobiologist Dr. Bennett Novitch as a clinical fellow in ourStem Cell Training Program. These models have since become the backbone of his research program.

With Novitch’s support, Samarasinghe built a network of collaborators at UCLA and beyond who were eager to help him refine organoids to be more valuableand accurate tools in the study of epilepsy’s complex disease processes. The knowledge he gained and the connections he forged as a trainee laid thegroundwork for his own lab at UCLA.

Today, he remains dedicated to making discoveries that will drive the development of real treatments for the millions of people living with epilepsy around theworld.

In 2018, actor Hirotaka Matsunaga was preparing for his big break — a leading role in a play. Just weeks from opening night, however, he receiveddevastating news: his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma had returned. Once again, the 39-year-old’s career — and life — was suddenly placed on hold.

After four years of unsuccessful treatments and recurrences, Matsunaga took a leap of faith and joined a UCLA clinical trial for a cutting-edge CAR-T celltherapy.

The novel therapy was a success, putting Matsunaga and seven other clinical trial participants into remission.

Study leaders Drs. Yvonne Chen and Sarah Larson are now adapting this dual-target CAR-T cell therapy to combat multiple myeloma and developingstrategies to ensure these innovative treatments are more accessible and affordable for patients.

Now free of symptoms, Matsunaga has returned to acting and is able to embrace new roles without the constant worry of relapse.

“I feel like myself again,” he said. “I hope my story offers comfort to others by letting them know you can live a fulfilling, exciting life after cancer.”