California Scientist Jeanne Loring Named as One of 20 Female Biopharma Groundbreakers

Co-founder of Aspen Neuroscience and longtime recipient of CIRM cash

Jeanne Loring with one of six young female southern white rhinos who were brought to the San Diego Safari Park to be surrogate mothers for the rescue of the nearly extinct northern white rhino. “Thirteen years ago we made pluripotent stem cells from northern white rhino skin cells stored in the Frozen Zoo,” Loring says.  “There are now stem cell lines from nine northern white rhinos, only two of which are still alive. The plan is to rescue the species by making the cells into gametes to use for IVF and incubate them in the surrogate southern white surrogates.  My personal goal is to rescue them in my lifetime.”

A longtime recipient of research funding from the state of California and co-founder of a firm seeking a stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease has been honored by Endpoints News as one of 20 women breaking new ground in biopharma research. 

She is Jeanne Loring, a Scripps Research professor emeritus. Loring has received $25 million in direct and collaborative grants from the state stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The firm she co-founded, Aspen Neuroscience, Inc. of San Diego, has received $8 million from CIRM for its phase one clinical trial, which recently completed dosing its first group of patients. 

Endpoints’ recognition program is aimed at honoring female scientists’  “ac­com­plish­ments and their ex­pe­ri­ence as women lead­ers; to not shy away from hard ques­tions; and to try their best to bring these women the recog­ni­tion they de­serve.”

“Jeanne Loring, who has been called the godmother of stem cells, is watching her decades-long research reach a pivotal juncture,” Endpoints said. 

“Her tenacity produced, perhaps most notably,