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Oswald Steward, director of one of the nation's top research centers dedicated to finding spinal cord injury cures, has been appointed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Independent Citizens Oversight Commission – a commission that will oversee the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine approved by California voters in the Nov. 2 election.

Steward joins Susan V. Bryant, dean of the UC Irvine School of Biological Sciences, on the commission. Bryant was appointed by UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone to the commission last month.

The passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, authorizes $3 billion worth of bonds – an average of $295 million per year for 10 years – to fund stem cell research and facilities in the state. Steward is one of 29 members appointed to the ICOC.

"It is a great honor to be selected for the commission," Steward said. "The use of stem cells in research holds so much potential to advance basic scientific knowledge and to find much-needed cures. In the area of spinal cord injury, human stem cell research already has made a significant impact at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center."

A professor of anatomy and neurobiology, Steward is director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UCI. Named for the late actor Christopher Reeve, the center was established to study injuries to and diseases of the spinal cord and develop strategies to promote repair and regeneration of nerve cells. Center researchers currently use human stem cells to discover treatments for people with spinal cord injury and central nervous system diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Steward serves on the board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and chair of its Science Advisory Council. Prior to joining UCI, Steward was chair of neuroscience and Harrison Foundation Professor of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he served on the faculty from 1974 to 1999.

Steward is known for his research on how nerve cells create and maintain their connections with each other, and how these synapses are modified after injuries. He has conducted research on how genes influence nerve cell regeneration, growth and function, and how physiological activity affects nerve cell connections.

He has served in leadership roles at the Society for Neuroscience, the American Association of Anatomists and as a member of the American Society for Cell Biology. He also was the chair of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) neurobiology review group and served on the NIH spinal cord injury planning committee.

A Laguna Beach resident, Steward earned a doctorate in psychobiology from UCI and an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

For more information on the Reeve-Irvine Research Center, see: www.reeve.uci.edu.

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