Dr. Cibelli currently holds the position of Professor of Animal Biotechnology at Michigan State University. He heads the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory in the Departments of Animal Science and Physiology. From October 1999 until December 2002 he was the vice president for research of Advanced Cell Technology, a stem cell company in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Dr. Cibelli is one of the pioneers in the area of cloning with transgenic somatic cells for the production of animals and embryonic stem cells. Dr. Cibelli together with his colleagues, were responsible for the generation of the world’s first transgenic cloned calves, the first embryonic stem cells by nuclear transfer and the first embryonic stem cells by parthenogenesis in primates. Dr. Cibelli pioneered nuclear transfer and parthenogenesis of human eggs in 2001 in Massachusetts, following the development of stringent ethical standards for the research. This was followed by publications in Science, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, PNAS and JAMA. He has testified about nuclear transfer and stem cells in public forums sponsored by the US Food and Drug administration, the USA National Academy of Sciences, Canadian House of Commons, the USA Department of Agriculture and the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.
Dr. Cibelli also serves as the Associate Scientific Director of the ‘Program for Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine of Andalucía’, Seville, Spain; the International Committee of the ‘International Stem Cell Research Society’, the Ethics Committee of the ‘American Society of Gene Therapy’ and the Scientific and Medical Accountability Standards Working Group of the ‘California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’.