Dr. Prue Talbot, a member of the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, has been appointed the Director of the Stem Cell Center at UCR. Dr. Talbot’s lab is working on several projects involving embryonic stem cells. Her group, which is specifically developing new methods to improve culture of stem cells, has identified several chemicals that facilitate attachment and growth of stem cells on plastic substrates. These chemicals may be useful in growing stem cells without protein substrates and moving the field closer to development of better defined culture conditions. Her lab is also using embryonic stem cells for toxicity testing. Recent work on the toxicity of sidestream cigarette smoke and its adverse effects on embryonic stem cell survival was presented this year at the annual meetings of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Australia. Dr. Talbot is a member of the Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology graduate program and the Environmental Biology graduate program and also teaches in our graduate course in stem cell biology (CMDB 207) which is offered each spring quarter.

For more information on the Talbot lab please see talbotcentral.ucr.edu.