About Us
The extraordinary promise of regenerative medicine research
Stroke, heart disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s touch nearly everyone’s lives. There are currently no cures for these devastating diseases, but the Regenerative Bioscience Center (RBC) links researchers and resources collaborating in a wide range of disciplines to develop new cures for these diseases. With its potential restorative powers, regenerative medicine is transforming the field of medicine.
“The RBC provides a base where it brings together devoted researchers and holds the infrastructure necessary to support and energize these collaborations,” says Steven Stice, Director of the RBC. “There’s nothing that excites me more than the promise and hope of stem cell therapy.”
In many cases, individual members of the institute have been awarded research grants from both public, government and private sources of funding. Among the public supporters has been the National Institutes of Health and The American Heart Institute. Gov’t agencies include; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DOD). A strong private supporter has been the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which contributed $1.5 Million to develop naturally disease resistance chickens to help poor third world families increase their standard of living.
The RBC promotes cross-discipline and multi-institutional research within the Georgia Research Alliance with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State, the Medical College of Georgia, and Emory University. The center increases knowledge, facility, and technology resources to gain external funding.
In addition to research, the RBC provides education to national and international researchers, graduate and undergraduate classes taught by the faculty, and a Young Scholar program for high school students interested in biomedical science careers. “As a group we inspire each other; researchers, students and outside constituent teams through a shared vision for the future and how regenerative bioscience (repair, discovery and safety) research will improve the quality of life for all ages,” claims Stice.
Learn more about the incredible work that the RBC is doing here.
RBC Leadership
Experts in regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies
-
John Peroni
Professor of Large Animal Surgery
Co-Founder -
Steven Stice
Professor, GRA Eminent Scholar
Director and Co-Founder of the RBC -
Franklin West
Professor
Co-Founder
A remarkable record of achievement
2004: Creation of the Regenerative Bioscience Center
Dr. Steven Stice and other faculty at the University of Georgia helped establish the Regenerative Bioscience Center (RBC). The goal was to lay a foundation for collaborative research, training and resource sharing.
2008: One of five research centers in the United States awarded NIH (HEST) training
Funding Institution: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Workshop: Human Embryonic Stem Cell Toolbox (HEST). Awarded one million dollars to conduct a short course in human embryonic stem cell culture techniques twice a year. (HEST) brings together scientists with training in embryology, developmental biology, tissue engineering and cell biology to learn the intricate details and theory of hES cell self-renewal.
2012: Toxicology Journal Published a Significant Advance of the RBC
In the study titled “Metabolomics and Human Stem Cells Improve Developmental Toxicology Assays,” we identified major pathways affected by steroid hormones in GLCs, which demonstrated that the developed methodology can be used to investigate the potential impacts and comparative response of selected environmentally relevant EACs in human stem cells.
2014: One of three institutions sharing a $3 million grant from the EPA
The overarching objective is to determine endocrine active compounds (EACs) adverse outcome pathway relationships. The methods used by the Regenerative Bioscience Center will expand the number of chemicals that can be tested each year, reducing process time, effort and cost while also minimizing animal use.
“By better predicting whether chemicals have the potential to impact health and human development, these grants will not only advance the science necessary to improve chemical safety but protect the well-being and futures of children in this nation,” said Lek Kadeli of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development.
2016: A Porcine Stroke Model for Neurological Repair
The only study in the entire United States to develop and characterize a novel pig middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) ischemic stroke model. Efforts to develop stroke treatments have met with limited success despite an intense need to produce novel treatments. These results suggest that the pig model is potentially a robust system for the study of stroke pathophysiology and potential diagnostics and therapeutics.
2017: UGA-RBC joins NIIMBL
The University of Georgia RBC is partnering in a biopharmaceutical innovation institute that aims to boost market production of cell-based therapies and develop a skilled workforce trained for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. The new public-private partnership, called the National Institute for Innovation of Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, or NIIMBL represents a total investment of $250 million, including $129 million in private cost-share commitments.
2018: RBC scores $20 million dollar collaboration
RBC accepted into a newly funded NSF $20 million research consortium (CMaT) designed to hasten the development of advanced cell therapies for a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. The Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies, dubbed CMaT, based at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will bring together RBC researchers, industry partners, clinicians, engineers, cell biologists and immunologists.
2019: The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Awards RBC the 2019 Diversity Award
The award recognizes the centers work for supporting undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty from diverse backgrounds and RBC members who work toward achieving a welcoming, supportive and inclusive working environment.
Institutional Collaboration
