Monday, February 4, 2008

New stem cell bank to open in April

By Ryan McBride

An effort by the University of Massachusetts to establish a leading repository of human embryonic stem cells is slated to be completed by April, UMass President Jack Wilson says.

The stem cell bank, to be housed within UMass Medical School, is expected to store hundreds of embryonic stem cell types to aid in research and development of new treatments.

"It's really to establish Massachusetts as a global leader in stem cell research," Wilson said last week, during a meeting at the Statehouse. "It's also important because it will help us to attract talent to Massachusetts."

Human embryonic stem cells are derived from the embryos of donated reproductive eggs that are fertilized inside labs. The cells are able to grow into a variety of tissue types, making them prime candidates to be used as treatments for disease. The nascent field has not yet yielded treatments approved for the market, though.

Martha Farmer, a stem cell ethics fellow at Harvard Medical School, said UMass' planned stem cell bank would provide a valuable resource to researchers because it would offer a central source of well-maintained stem cells.

Other well-known repositories of stem cells are at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a leading research institution in the field, and the UK Stem Cell Bank in Hertfordshire, England, she said. UMass' bank, Farmer noted, would be the most extensive in the United States.

The UMass stem cell bank is expected to include embryonic stem cells donated from Harvard, the National Institutes of Health, and other sources, Wilson said. Also, an online registry is planned to keep records and published research on all human embryonic stem cells. The test version of the registry website has been completed, he said, and offers such features as automatic updates on news in the field of stem cell research.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a state agency created in 2006, has approved $8.2 million for the stem cell bank just outside of Worcester, in Shrewsbury. Kofi Jones, a spokeswoman for the state, said the agency and UMass are expected to finalize a contract soon.

Gov. Deval Patrick has named stem cell research as a priority in his $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, announced in May 2007 after California and Connecticut had launched programs to fund studies of stem cells.

President George Bush in 2001 placed strict limits on federal funding for stem cell research, citing ethical reasons to limit funded research to existing stem cell lines already derived from embryos created for reproductive purposes and no longer needed. Late last year, however, researchers at the University of Wisconsin published studies showing the ability to program the genes of human skin cells to produce cells in an embryonic-like state. While the discovery has the potential to answer the ethical debate, many scientists remain committed to developing treatments from stem cells taken from embryos.