WiCell receives $16 million NIH
grant to create national stem cell bank
Wisconsin Week
University Communications
October 3, 2005
The WiCell Research Institute has been
selected by the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) to establish the federal government's first and only National Stem Cell
Bank (NSCB), it was announced today at a news conference in Madison.
The NIH selected WiCell from a field of applicants in the United States to
create the NSCB "to serve the research community by performing comprehensive
characterization of human embryonic stem cell lines (hESC) and distributing
these cell lines to investigators," according to a technical document
accompanying WiCell's proposal to NIH in March.
 Derek
J. Hei, technical director of the
Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility at UW-Madison and principal
investigator on the NSCB project, says the NIH award of $16 million over the
next four years "is another example of how researchers on this campus work
collaboratively and on an interdisciplinary basis, which is how we've come
together to bring the National Stem Cell Bank to WiCell and UW-Madison."
James Thomson, WiCell scientific director and professor of anatomy at
UW-Madison, says, "The selection of WiCell as the NSCB is a great honor and a
great responsibility. Funding of the NSCB will greatly increase WiCell's ability
to serve the human ES cell research community, as it will dramatically reduce
the cost of these cell lines to investigators and encourage their more
widespread use.
"Although the creation of this center is very important, I hope that NIH will
ultimately decide to fund additional similar centers across the United States to
support this rapidly expanding field," Thomson adds.
Thomson, the UW-Madison researcher who first isolated stem cells in 1998 and
began worldwide research efforts to explore the potential of using stem cells to
fight some of the most pernicious diseases and afflictions facing humanity, was
joined at the news conference by U.S. Rep Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Gov. Jim
Doyle, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, UW System Board of Regents President
David Walsh, UW System President Kevin Reilly and several researchers who will
take part in the creation and management of the NSCB.
Carl Gulbrandsen, president of the WiCell board of directors, praised the team
of WiCell and UW-Madison researchers for developing the proposal ultimately
selected by NIH. "Clearly having a concentration of world-class expertise in the
biosciences, and in particular stem cell research on this campus, played a major
role in NIH's selection of WiCell. These are scientists who are leading the way
in stem cell research in our country and are constantly advancing the potential
of Dr. Thomson's original discovery just seven years ago," he says.
Gulbrandsen says the NSCB would provide many benefits to academic researchers,
including:
- A lower cost of only $500 for
obtaining stem-cell lines for academic research, compared to $5,000
previously;
- The continuing ability for
academic researchers to patent any discovery made with these stem-cell lines,
without restriction;
- Comprehensive technical
support; and
- Availability of special
training classes to teach researchers how to work with the stem-cell lines.
"Establishing the National Stem
Cell Bank at WiCell responds to the needs of researchers everywhere and is a
significant step forward in supporting this research," Gulbrandsen says.
The main goal of the project is to establish a National Stem Cell Bank that will
serve the research community by performing comprehensive characterization of
hESC lines and distributing these cell lines to investigators. In addition, the
NSCB will provide support for the research community by providing technical
assistance and training in state-of-the-art methods for hESC culture and
testing, according to WiCell's technical proposal filed with the NIH.
The proposal further states: "One of the next important steps in advancing the
area of hESC research is to develop standardized test methods that will allow
the available cell lines to be completely characterized and compared. Detailed
characterization studies will allow researchers to identify cell lines that are
appropriate for specific applications. Moreover, comparative studies may provide
valuable insight into the relationship between subtle genetic differences
between the hESC lines and resulting differences in functional properties.
"Several groups have performed characterization studies on subsets of the hESC
lines that are currently listed in the
NIH Human Embryonic Stem
Cell Registry. However, a comprehensive comparison of all of the lines using
standardized techniques has not been undertaken. Development of standardized
characterization methods and establishment of a national source of these
well-characterized cell lines will greatly accelerate advancements in all areas
of hESC research."
The WiCell technical proposal also states: "This proposal outlines the plan for
WiCell to serve as the NSCB by establishing a network of investigators comprised
of scientists at WiCell, the UW-Madison and external collaborators. This network
of investigators will provide unrivaled expertise in hESC culture methods, cell
characterization methods and methods for differentiating hESC into specific cell
types.
"Having the NSCB on a campus with a clinical cell-production facility directly
adjacent to clinician scientists engaged in translational hESC research will
also ultimately help facilitate the introduction of hESC-based therapies into
the clinics. Indeed, although the current proposal calls for a single NSCB, we
believe that the community would be better served if there were several regional
NSCBs, each adjacent to major medical centers engaged in translational hESC
research."
Some key facts about stem cell research in Madison include:
- WiCell shipped a total of 312
hES cell lines to 253 academic research groups in 21 countries.
- WiCell's introductory course
on stem cell culture methods has been taken by 238 students from 96
institutions.
- As of Sept. 22, there are 80
investigators studying human embryonic stem cells at WiCell and UW-Madison.
Copyright
© 2005 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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