Jeanne Loring facts for kids
Jeanne Frances Loring (born in 1950) is an American scientist who studies stem cells, the brain, and genetics. She helped start and was the first director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in California. She also created two biotechnology companies, Arcos BioScience and Aspen Neuroscience.
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Early Life and Education
Jeanne Loring was born on May 4, 1950, in Tucson, Arizona. Her father was a geologist, which meant her family moved often. She grew up in mining towns across Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Her father taught her a lot at home, filling in gaps from her small-town schools.
In 1968, Jeanne won a National Merit Scholarship. This allowed her to attend the University of Washington in Seattle. She earned a degree in molecular biology in 1972. She then went to the University of Oregon for her advanced studies. There, she became very interested in how stem cells develop. She earned her Ph.D. in 1979.
Career Highlights
After her Ph.D., Dr. Loring spent five years at the University of California Davis. She studied and taught about how living things develop and how the brain forms. Later, she moved into the biotechnology industry. This is where companies use living systems to create new products.
At Hana Biologics, she worked on treatments for Parkinson's disease. She then focused on how genomics (studying all of an organism's genes) connects with stem cells. At GenPharm, she worked on changing genes in mouse embryonic stem cells. She even created mice that could help scientists study human diseases. She was the first to put a large piece of human DNA into a mouse.
Dr. Loring founded Arcos Bioscience in 1997. She wanted to work with human embryonic stem cells. Her company created nine of the human embryonic stem cell lines that the U.S. government approved for research funding in 2001.
In 2006, Dr. Loring challenged some patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). These patents covered all human embryonic stem cells. She argued that these patents made it too hard for scientists to do research. The U.S. Patent Office agreed and rejected parts of the patents. This was a big win for stem cell research. It meant that a new type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), was not covered by WARF's patents.
In 2007, Dr. Loring joined The Scripps Research Institute. She became the first director of their Center for Regenerative Medicine. In 2018, she started a new company called Aspen Neuroscience. This company aims to turn stem cell research into real treatments for patients. She is now a professor emerita at Scripps, meaning she has retired but keeps her title.
Her current research focuses on pluripotent stem cells. These are amazing cells that can be made from adult cells. They can then turn into almost any cell type in the body. Dr. Loring has written over 200 scientific papers. She also holds five patents related to her work.
Helping Patients
Dr. Loring strongly believes in educating patients. She often writes on a stem cell blog called The Niche. She shares her experiences, like attending public meetings about diseases such as Huntington's and Parkinson's.
Because she speaks out for patients and supports stem cell research, she has received several awards. These include the Stem Cell Person of the Year award and the Stem Cell Action Advocacy Award, both in 2015. She also won a Stem Cell Pioneer award in 2019.
Research Areas
Genomics and Epigenetics
A big part of Dr. Loring's research looks at the genomics and epigenetics of pluripotent stem cells. Genomics is about all the genes in an organism. Epigenetics studies how genes are turned on or off without changing the DNA itself. Her goal is to make sure these stem cells are safe and work well for treatments.
She helped create PluriTest. This is a special test that uses gene patterns to predict if new cell lines are truly pluripotent. This test helps ensure the quality of stem cells used in research and medicine.
Parkinson's Disease Cell Therapy
Parkinson's disease causes problems with movement. This happens because certain brain cells that make dopamine die. Aspen Neuroscience, Dr. Loring's company, is working on a new treatment. They want to replace these lost brain cells using patient-specific stem cells.
This means they take cells from a patient, turn them into stem cells, and then guide them to become dopamine-making brain cells. These new cells can then be put back into the patient's brain. Using the patient's own cells means their body won't reject the new cells. This project also involves a lot of community support and education.
Multiple Sclerosis Therapy
Another project in Dr. Loring's lab is developing a treatment for Multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. In studies with mice, human stem cells helped restore movement in mice with MS. The goal is to find out exactly how these cells help. This knowledge can then be used to create new treatments for people with MS.
Understanding Autism
Fragile X syndrome is a genetic condition that is a common cause of autism. Dr. Loring's lab uses stem cells from patients with Fragile X. They turn these stem cells into brain cells to study how autism affects brain development. This research could help scientists find new medicines to treat Fragile X and other forms of autism.
The Stem Cell Zoo
Dr. Loring and her team were the first to create induced pluripotent stem cells from endangered animals. They made stem cells from a drill monkey and a nearly extinct northern white rhinoceros. This project works with The Frozen Zoo at the San Diego Zoo. The Frozen Zoo has collected and frozen samples from thousands of animals.
The idea is that if everything works, these stem cells could help create new animals. This could be a way to save species that are almost gone. In 2015, experts met to make a plan to save the northern white rhino using these cell technologies.
Stem Cells in Space
Dr. Loring is also part of a project studying how microgravity (the feeling of weightlessness) affects brain cells. They have sent tiny "brain organoids" (mini-brains grown from stem cells) to the International Space Station (ISS) on several missions.
These brain cells survived and grew well for 30 days in space. Early results show that microgravity causes unexpected changes in the cells. Dr. Loring's own stem cell-derived brain cells were sent to the ISS in 2022.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Loring has received many awards for her important work. Some of these include:
- Rosalind Franklin Society Science Award (2022)
- American Physiological Society Solomon Berson Distinguished Lectureship (2022)
- Xconomy Stem Cell Pioneer award (2019)
- Stem Cell Action Advocacy Award (2015)
- Stem Cell Person of the Year (2015)
She was also a National Merit Scholar and received a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Personal Life
Dr. Loring lives in Del Mar, California. She is married to David L. Barker, who is also a scientist. They both love to travel. A special hobby they share is chasing total solar eclipses around the world. Dr. Loring has seen 20 eclipses, with 16 of them being total eclipses where the moon completely blocks the sun. She has spent more than 45 minutes in the darkness of a total solar eclipse!
