TEDx Santa Barbara

The 2017 show is held on Saturday, November 11th, at The New Vic, conveniently located in the heart of historic downtown Santa Barbara, with snacks and food provided by our wonderful local partners. All you need to bring is your imagination, an open mind, and a desire to be a part of a growing global TEDx community.

There will also be a Live Simulcast Event held at Impact Hub. Both ticket types include access to the post-show After Party, held at Impact Hub from 7-10 pm.

Tickets can be purchased at the link below.

On Sunday, September 10, more than 100 supporters of the Santa Barbara Braille Institute gathered on its lovely campus for the 3rd annual Festival of Flavors. The Santa Barbara Braille Institute Auxiliary hosts this fundraiser to support the multitude of free classes, programs and services at the institute for the blind and visually impaired.

Leah Foltz, a graduate student in the lab of MCDB professor Dennis Clegg, delivered an engaging summary of recent strides in stem cell research and how her lab uses this biological material to study blinding diseases. Her research explores whether scientists will one day be able to use someone’s own cells to cure their blindness. Foltz’s lively delivery earned her a first-place finish in the campuswide competition. Now she’s headed to San Francisco to test her mettle Thursday, May 4, against participants from the nine other University of California campuses.

The cover story of the September issue of National Geographic on treating blindness featured two research projects underway at the UCSB Stem Cell Center. First mentioned was the California Project to Cure Blindness, a joint effort between USC, UCSB, Caltech, City of Hope, University College London and Regenerative Patch Technologies, where researchers are using embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigmented epithelial cells on a scaffold to treat the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (Clegg and Coffey labs). Second, the article described work led by Henry Klassen at UC Irvine to treat retinitis pigmentosa with retinal stem cells. Both of these stem cell therapies are currently in clinical trials for ocular disease.