Wellcome gives £10m for new stem cell research centre at Cambridge
The Wellcome Trust said today it is providing £10m to establish an international centre of excellence in fundamental stem cell research at the University of Cambridge.
The Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research will be led by world-renowned stem cell researchers Austin Smith (pictured) and Fiona Watt, and is due to open at the University in December 2006.
The Medical Research Council and the Wolfson Foundation are also contributing £1.5m each towards the Centre.
Prof Smith is former Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Research at Edinburgh University where his team made a series of ground-breaking discoveries in stem cell research. He will become Director of the Centre.
"Historically the UK has been a world leader in stem cell research. There is now both a crucial opportunity to extend this due to the current restrictions on public funding of human embryonic stem cell research in the US," Prof Smith said.
Prof Watt has been appointed Deputy Director. She has been Head of the Keratinocyte Laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Centre since 1987. Prof Watt is also Deputy Director of the new Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute. Stem cell biology is an important part of fundamental cancer research, and Prof Watt's joint appointment between the two Institutes will strengthen the scientific links between them.
In addition to providing £7m over five years for core facilities and a dedicated four year PhD programme in stem cell biology, the Wellcome Trust has awarded a £3m grant to Prof Watt to explore how adult stem cells can be used to develop better skin grafts.
The Wellcome Trust is the most diverse biomedical research charity in the world, spending about £450m every year to support and promote research that will improve the health of humans and animals. It was set up under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome, and is funded from a private endowment.
Prof Watt's team will investigate how an adult's epidermis (the outer covering of the skin) can be made to produce new hair follicles and glands to lubricate the skin. Her research may also be applicable to stimulating regeneration and production of other specialist cell types, including muscle and brain cells. This would enable the development of therapies using adult stem cell alternatives for numerous diseases and conditions.
Significant role
Professor Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge, said that the "implications of stem cell research for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's, as well other debilitating conditions, are enormous. Cambridge has played a significant historic role in the advancement of stem cell research, and the new Centre will provide countless additional opportunities to build upon this tradition of scientific excellence."
Stem cells are rare cells that have the capacity to multiply themselves and to produce other, more specialised, cell types. Study of stem cells can improve our understanding of how the human body develops and maintains itself, and of how certain diseases arise. Research in this area offers great potential for future medical treatments.
The Centre will focus on the definition of the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that control how stem cells develop into particular types of cell. This will provide foundations for engineering of stem cells to model particular diseases, drug discovery and regenerative medicine.
Blood stem cells and skin stem cells are already used to treat certain leukaemias and burns respectively. Transplants of other types of stem cells may allow the replacement of diseased or damaged tissues in degenerative conditions such as diabetes or Parkinson's disease. Scientists believe that as we learn more about the properties of stem cells it may become feasible in some tissues to activate resident stem cells for repair and rejuvenation.
26th July 2006
