New Stem Cell Research Center Opens At UCSB

SANTA BARBARA – U.C. Santa Barbara celebrated the grand opening of its new Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering today.The center brings together two faculties, bio-medical science and engineering. It’s something that has never been done before. For that reason, this new stem cell research center is attracting top talent from all over the world. One of those talented people is Center Co-Director Pete Coffey, “So for me as a Brit, to be brought over here and to actually see the global importance of California has been amazing.”Dennis Clegg, one of the center’s other co-directors, told KEY News that UCSB doesn’t have its own medical school. But instead, they are using the slogan “New Medicine Starts Here”, Clegg said, “We have this unique combination of skills here between engineers, bio-engineers and basic molecular biologists. Together they are collaborating to make new therapies for disease.”Money from Proposition 71 passed by California voters in 2004 helped pay for the center.