Susan Solomon

Stem cell research advocate
Website: nyscf.org Article: "The Stem Cell Wars Are Not Over"
Susan Solomon's work focused on supporting human stem cell research, aiming to cure major diseases and empower more personalized medicine.

Why you should listen

Susan Solomon’s health care advocacy stemmed from personal medical trials -- namely, her son's Type 1 diabetes and her mother's fatal cancer. Following a successful career as a lawyer and business entrepreneur, Solomon, frustrated by the slow pace of medical research, was inspired to use those skills to follow another passion: accelerating medical research with real-world results as a social entrepreneur. And through her own research and conversations with medical experts, she decided that stem cells (cells that have the ability to morph into any other kind of cell) had the greatest potential to impact peoples’ health.

In 2005, Solomon founded the New York Stem Cell Foundation, one of the largest nonprofit research institutions and laboratories in this field in the world. The NYSCF Research Institute conducts all facets of stem cell research from growing the cells to drug discovery.

At TEDGlobal 2012, Solomon announced the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array, a technology to create thousands of stem cell avatars and genetically array them. The aim of this work is to functionalize the data from the human genome and revolutionize the way we develop cures and treatments so they are better, safer, less expensive and happen much more quickly.

What others say

“Susan Solomon is a hero for stem cell scientists and hopeful patients around the world.” — Kevin Eggan, Harvard University

Susan Solomon’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Susan Solomon

Health

10 talks on the future of stem cell medicine

September 13, 2012

[ted id=1562] Will the next generation think about diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes the way we think about polio and the whooping cough? Susan Solomon, the co-founder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), certainly hopes so. In this fascinating talk from TEDGlobal 2012, Solomon delves into the foundation’s work on research with stem […]

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