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Cal Poly Awarded $2.89M to Implement a Diverse Undergraduate Regenerative Medicine Program

Last spring, a cross-disciplinary team of faculty at Cal Poly submitted a proposal to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to fund an undergraduate program at Cal Poly through their new COMPASS (Creating Opportunities through Mentorship and Partnership Across Stem cell Science) initiative.  This team included:

  • Kristen Cardinal: Program Director, Biomedical Engineering
  • Sandi Clement: Diversity and Outreach Coordinator, Biological Sciences
  • Jane Lehr: Mentorship Facilitator, Director of the Office of Student Research (and also faculty in Ethnic Studies and Women's, Gender & Queer Studies)
  • Trevor Cardinal: Key Personnel, Biomedical Engineering
  • Elena Keeling: Key Personnel, Biological Sciences
  • Emily Neal: Key Personnel, Biological Sciences

The COMPASS team recently received the good news that their proposal "A COMPASS to guide the growth of a diverse Regenerative Medicine workforce that represents California and benefits the world" was selected and will be receiving $2.89M over the next 5 years to implement the program. 

Education is at the core of CIRM’s mission of accelerating world class science to deliver transformative regenerative medicine treatments in an equitable manner to a diverse California and world. Funding these additional programs is an important step in ensuring that California has a well-trained stem cell workforce.

This award will allow Cal Poly's Regenerative Medicine program to prepare a diverse cadre of undergrads for careers in the industry through a 2-year training program.  The program will include:

  • Active and targeted outreach and recruitment of high school and community college students from underrepresented backgrounds
  • Tuition, stipends, and other support funds for all of our COMPASS Scholars
  • Coursework and training in Regenerative Medicine content and hands-on techniques, including two new undergraduate lecture/lab courses on cell therapies
  • On-campus research experience 
  • A comprehensive mentoring program for all of our COMPASS Scholars
  • A paid industry internship or co-op with our Regenerative Medicine industry partners
  • Community outreach, patient-engagement activities, and more

"Although Cal Poly has had an active Regenerative Medicine program at the graduate level for many years, we are very excited to bring this type of formal training to our undergraduates, and specifically to help foster increased diversity in the field," says Program Director Kristen Cardinal.

Following their first year on campus, COMPASS Scholars will be matched with an industry internship. Industry experience provides the effective training and networking for our students to be ready to enter the regenerative medicine industry upon graduation.  

Industry partners include a range of biotech companies specifically working in the regenerative medicine space, with all companies committed to providing hands-on, mentored experiences for the COMPASS Scholars. Cal Poly will have internship opportunities for students ranging from early-stage R&D companies such as A2 Biotherapeutics to clinical-stage companies such as Direct Biologics. There will be additional opportunities within gene therapy companies such as GenEdit, CSL Behring, and cell/device combination product companies such as ViaCyte.  Large companies such as ThermoFisher and Genentech, and small companies such as Rubedo Life Sciences have also committed to be internship hosts. A detailed list of companies is provided below.  

A2 Biotherapeutics 

Allogene Therapeutics 

CSL Behring 

Direct Biologics 

GenEdit 

Genentech 

Miltenyi (Owl Biomedical) 

Novo Nordisk (Cell Therapy) 

Rubedo Life Sciences 

ThermoFisher (Cell Biology) 

ThermoFisher (Pharma Services) 

ViaCyte 

More information about the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine's COMPASS initiative can be found here: https://blog.cirm.ca.gov/2022/08/31/stem-cell-agency-invests-46-million-in-new-education-program/

Acknowledgement Statement: This project was made possible by the work of the units in the Cal Poly Division of Research, Economic Development & Graduate Education to support student research, Learn-by-Doing, the Teacher-Scholar Model, proposal submission, award negotiation, compliance review, and post-award management. See more at research.calpoly.edu.

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