Hans Keirstead

Hans Keirstead is a medical scientist and entrepreneur specializing in stem cell research. He ran[1] as a Democrat to represent California's 48th district in the US Congress in the 2018 elections, but he was defeated in the primary by Harley Rouda.[2]

Hans Keirstead
Personal details
Born (1967-04-21) April 21, 1967
Halifax, Canada
Political partyDemocratic
EducationUniversity of British Columbia (BS, MS, PhD)

Early life and education

Keirstead was raised by a single mother on a farm in Canada and began working to help support his family at age nine.[3]

He received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, winning the Cameron Award for the best Ph.D. thesis in the country, with his thesis constituting the first demonstration of functional regeneration of the injured adult spinal cord. He went on to complete four years of post-doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, where he was the youngest person elected to two senior academic posts, Fellow of the Governing Body of Downing College and Senate Member of the University of Cambridge.[4]

Career

In 2000, Keirstead left his position at the University of British Columbia, where his spinal cord research had been funded by Rick Hansen's charitable foundation. He joined the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.[5]

Keirstead has advised U.S. Senators and members of Congress on health care and biotechnology.[3] He testified on the state's biotech industry to the California State Senate in 2002 amidst a national debate about stem cell laws and policy in the United States.[5]

In 2004, Keirstead publicly supported California Proposition 71, which aimed to authorize three billion dollars for stem cell research for a newly created California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. During the debate he released a video of how he could restore mobility to paralyzed rats using his stem cell research. Keirstead was criticized at the time, because the procedure had yet to be published in a peer reviewed journal, but it subsequently published the following year in the Journal of Neuroscience. The procedure was reproduced by three other labs by 2006, confirming that cells engineered to make myelin can help restore damaged areas of the spinal cord.[5]

Keirstead was Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Professor of Neurological Surgery at the School of Medicine of the University of California at Irvine for fifteen years, where he was awarded over $16 million in grants and founded the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.[6] In his academic career, he mentored more than 100 students and published more than 100 manuscripts.[7]

He launched medical research startup companies in Orange County and is currently CEO at AIVITA Biomedical. Other corporate affiliations include Neuron Therapeutics, Inc., Caladrius Biosciences, Inc., Lifeline Cell Technology, LLC, International Stem Cell Corporation, NeoStem Oncology, LLC, Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc., and ALPHAEON Corporation.[4]

He has developed new treatments for cancer and for neurological injuries, and has been granted over 20 patents.[8][7]

In 2010, Geron Corporation began the world's first clinical trial of human embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal cord injuries, based on the research of Keirstead's team at UC Irvine. However, the trials ended after a year due to lack of funds.[9]

In 2013, Keirstead took a leave of absence from UC Irvine to conduct tests in the private sector. He joined California Stem Cell, Inc., also based in Irvine, as its president and CEO. His first focus after the leave of absence was trials for targeting skin cancer cells using stem cells from the cancer itself to train the immune system.[9]

In 2014, he sold a stem-cell company in a deal worth $124 million.[10]

Keirstead announced in June 2017 that he would run for Congress as a Democrat, challenging a seat held by Dana Rohrabacher in California's 48th Congressional District.[2] In a 2018 interview with ABILITY Magazine, Keirstead said "We don’t have anyone [in Washington] with a broad, deep understanding of the healthcare system, for example, not a one. 435 members, and there’s no one there with a broad, deep understanding of what is 20 percent of our economy. We need that."[11] He conceded the Democratic Party primary to Harley Rouda on Sunday, June 24, 2018[1] after a very close race. His campaign appears to have been targeted by a cyberattack.[12]

Personal life

His wife, Niki, is a neuroscientist specializing in Alzheimer's disease. They have one son.[6]

Keirstead has a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo. He owns and flies his own helicopter.[13]

gollark: Someone else can probably explain better than I. I mostly just muddle my way around coroutines.
gollark: sleep was not messing it up - it expected coroutine.yield to pass it events. The fault is your own.
gollark: Not really.
gollark: Coroutine usage directly is generally best for setups where you need to add/remove coroutines during execution.
gollark: parallel.waitForAll(func1, func2, ...)

References
  1. https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/rouda-face-rohrabacher-keirstead-concedes
  2. Guarino, Ben (June 20, 2017). "He broke ground in stem-cell research. Now he's running for Congress". The Washington Post.
  3. "Meet Hans - Dr. Hans Keirstead for Congress". Keirstead campaign website.
  4. "Hans S. Keirstead, Ph.D.: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". Bloomberg L.P.
  5. MacQueen, Ken (July 1, 2006). "Canadian Researcher Hopes to Reverse Paralysis". Maclean's. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  6. "Hans Keirstead". 314 Action.
  7. "Hans S. Keirstead, Ph.D. - AIVITA Biomedical". AIVITA Biomedical website.
  8. Decker, Cathleen. "Stem cell scientist to become the latest Democrat trying to topple Dana Rohrabacher in O.C. House race". Los Angeles Times.
  9. Brennan, Pat (December 26, 2013). "Stem-cell pioneer exits UCI for private cancer fight". Orange County Register. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  10. "3 House Republicans Likely to Lose Their Seats in 2018". Observer. December 29, 2017.
  11. "Dr. Hans Keirstead: Fighting to Cure Cancer, and Fighting for California". ABILITY Magazine. May 16, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  12. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/california-election-hacking-711202/
  13. "Mr. Science Goes to Washington?". Stem Cell Battles.
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