Gladstone Institutes

Gladstone Institutes is an independent, non-profit biomedical research organization whose focus is to better understand, prevent, treat and cure cardiovascular, viral and neurological conditions such as heart failure, HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer's disease. Its researchers study these diseases using techniques of basic and translational science. Another focus at Gladstone is building on the development of induced pluripotent stem cell technology by one of its investigators, 2012 Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka, to improve drug discovery, personalized medicine and tissue regeneration.
Founded in 1979, Gladstone is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and is located in San Francisco, adjacent to UCSF's Mission Bay campus. Approximately 450 staff members—including more than 300 scientists—work at Gladstone.
History.
Gladstone Institutes was founded in 1979 as a research and training facility housed at San Francisco General Hospital. Under the leadership of Robert Mahley—a cardiovascular scientist recruited from the National Institutes of Health—the institutes was launched with a $8 million trust from the late commercial real estate developer, J. David Gladstone.
In 1991, the institutes expanded its focus to include virology and immunology in response to the growing HIV/AIDS crisis. In 1998 it founded a third institute dedicated to studying neurological diseases.
In 2004 the Gladstone Institutes moved to a new facility in San Francisco's Mission Bay, San Francisco neighborhood. Two years later it founded a center dedicated to translating its biological discoveries into therapies. Three years later and together with Taube Philanthropies and the Koret Foundation, it founded the Taube-Koret Center for Huntington's Disease Research.
In 2010, Dr. Mahley stepped down in order to return to active research. R. Sanders "Sandy" Williams, Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University, became Gladstone's new president.
In 2011, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation helped launch the Center for Comprehensive Alzheimer's Disease Research, while the Roddenberry Foundation helped launch the Roddenberry Stem Cell Center for Biology and Medicine. Also in 2011, the independent and philanthropic Gladstone Foundation formed with the mission of expanding the financial resources for the institutes.
Research programs.
Gladstone scientists focus on three main disease areas: cardiovascular disease, neurological disease and viral/immunological disease. Scientists working in all three disease areas use stem cell technology to advance the understanding, prevention, treatment and cure of disease.
Cardiovascular disease.
Gladstone cardiovascular scientists research the spectrum of cardiovascular disease—including congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and related metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Scientists utilize developmental, chemical and stem cell biology approaches, as well as genomics techniques.
Current research programs include:
Virology and immunology.
Virology and immunology research at Gladstone is focused primarily on three urgent challenges related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic: preventing viral transmission of HIV with drugs or a vaccine for those at risk of coming in contact with the virus, curing the millions of people who already live with HIV and restoring a normal lifespan to those who are HIV-positive—but who are dying earlier than their uninfected counterparts from diseases of aging.
In addition, the group studies hepatitis C, HTLV and the immunology of viral infections.
Current research programs include:
Neurological disease.
Research at Gladstone focuses on major neurological diseases including: Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease) and multiple sclerosis. This research incorporates animal models, electrophysiology, behavioral testing and automated high-throughput analyses. In addition, Gladstone investigators seek to accelerate the movement of basic science discoveries into clinical trials with efforts to bridge the so-called "Valley of Death". The research features an emphasis on the "common threads" that link the various diseases and treatments for them.
Current research programs include:
Stem cell technology.
Many research areas build upon the stem cell work of Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka. After completing his postdoctoral training at Gladstone, Yamanaka discovered induced pluripotent stem cell technology, by which ordinary differentiated adult cells (such as fibroblasts from skin) can be "reprogrammed" into a pluripotent state—i.e., a state similar to embryonic stem cells, which are capable of developing into virtually any cell type in the human body. His discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, has since revolutionized the fields of developmental biology, stem cell research and both personalized and regenerative medicine. In 2012 Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Since Yamanaka's 2006 discovery, scientists have made many advances in iPS technology and continue to conduct research in several areas of stem cell biology.
Current research programs include:
Translational research.
The Gladstone Center for Translational Research facilitates interactions between Gladstone scientists and the biomedical industry—including venture capitalists, biotech firms and large corporations. The Center's primary goal is to translate the results of Gladstone's basic science into therapeutics that help patients with cardiovascular, viral or neurological diseases.
Researchers.
Researchers at the institute include: