Three scientists with the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA were recently awarded grants totaling $49.2 million to use leading-edge stem cell science to develop new therapies for diseases such as sickle cell, HIV/ AIDS and brain, ovarian and colorectal cancers.

In all, 14 disease team grants totaling more than $250 million were awarded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell agency. Scientists with the UCLA stem cell center have been awarded nearly $122 million in state funding since 2005 for stem cell research.

The four-year grants are part of the institute’s Disease Team Initiative, which seeks to explore new ways of integrating and organizing research to develop new therapies and diagnostic tools. As part of the approval process, disease teams must submit an investigational new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration within four years, fast-tracking stem cell-related drug development.

The UCLA disease teams include collaborations with other stem cell institutions, industry and, in the case of the cancer disease team grant, a partnership with a Canadian research consortium. The Canadian government is matching the grant, bringing the total for the UCLA/Canada cancer disease team research project to nearly $40 million.

The UCLA disease team grants were awarded to the following people:

•Irvin Chen, director of the UCLA AIDS Institute and a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, received nearly $20 million to develop a method to block HIV infection and reproduction in the human body.

•Dr. Donald Kohn, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and pediatrics and director of the Human Gene Medicine Program at UCLA, received $9 million to develop a blood stem cell transplant to cure sickle cell disease.

•Dr. Dennis Slamon, director of clinical/translational research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief of the division of hematology/oncology at UCLA, received nearly $20 million to develop drugs that target stem cells believed to be the cause of some cancers, including brain, ovarian and colorectal cancers.

The stem cell center was launched in 2005. To learn more, visit www.stemcell.ucla.edu.