Jan A. Nolta, Ph.D., is the Director of the
Stem Cell Program at UC Davis School of
Medicine, and directs the Institute for
Regenerative Cures. She also serves as the
Scientific Director of the large UC Davis
Good Manufacturing Practice Facility, and
as Scientific Director of the Statewide
California
Umbilical
Cord
Blood
Collection Program. In 2013 she was
ranked as one of the “Global Top 50 Most
Influential People in the Field of Stem
Cells.”
The UC Davis stem cell program has over
150 faculty members collaborating to
work toward regenerative medicinerelated cures for a spectrum of diseases
and injuries. The current research in Dr.
Nolta’s laboratory is focused on
developing therapies that will use genemodified bone marrow - derived
mesenchymal stem/ stromal cells to
deliver factors for treating Huntington’s disease and vascular disorders. The group that
she oversees in the UC Davis Shared Translational Laboratory is helping UC Davis teams
develop numerous clinical trials of gene and cell therapy, with ten adult stem cell
therapies already in the clinic, and another twenty in the pipeline.
A scientist with more than 25 years’ experience with human stem cells and clinical trial
development, Dr. Nolta has published over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the stem
cell field and has authored 30 book chapters. She has served on over 200 review panels
for the National Institutes of Health and other grant-funding agencies, is Editor for the
Journal “Stem Cells” and was editor of the Book "Genetic Engineering of Mesenchymal
Stem Cells". Dr. Nolta received a prestigious five –year Transformative Grant Award
from the NIH office of the Director to study exosome- and nanotubule-mediated transfer
of microRNA from cell to cell, an area important in both stem cell and cancer research.
She has also been funded as Co-PI on three large disease team grants that have the goal
of developing and delivering novel Phase 1 clinical trials. In these teams she works with
physician/scientists who will deliver the treatments to patients who have few other
options. Her passion is team training and working with large groups of scientists, patient
advocates and MDs to develop novel therapies.