Leading Hadassah scientist reveals stem cell breakthroughs
One of the earliest pioneers in embryonic stem cell research, Benjamin Reubinoff, M.D., Ph.D., intrigued an audience of several hundred people at the University of Michigan with the latest advances his laboratory in Israel has made in turning the new medical technology into potential treatments for neurological diseases.
A professor at Hadassah Medical Center, Reubinoff was in Ann Arbor on January 28 to present the second annual A. Alfred Taubman Lectureship. He was a guest of the Taubman Institute, as part of its Israel Initiative, which seeks to create collaborations between leading medical researchers at U-M and Israel.
As part of this effort, while in town Reubinoff met with Taubman Institute Director Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., to discuss joint research on ALS.
Also making the event special was a large contingent from the Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah, which came out in force to hear Reubinoff’s lecture and to sponsor a luncheon with U-M leaders afterwards.
The director of Human Embryonic Research Center at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, Reubinoff told the near-capacity crowd how he had been able to apply neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells in experiments with animal disease models.
He injected these nerve cells into mice with multiple sclerosis or age-related macular degeneration and was able to delay the onset or reverse the damage of the diseases.
He warned that human applications of this stem cell therapy could still be years in the future, but the results were encouraging.
Alfred Taubman, in his closing remarks, said that Reubinoff’s work “makes abundantly clear how critical stem cell research is to medical science.”
Taubman had been one of the major backers of Proposal 2 on the November ballot, which successfully lifted many of the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state.
The vote opens the door to increased research with stem cells at the University of Michigan, likely one of the reasons for such a large turnout at the lecture.
In the front row of the BSRB auditorium were U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Robert Kelch. The rest of the room was filled with scientists, researchers and members of the public interested in stem cell research.
After his lecture, Reubinoff told the Ann Arbor News that the passage of Proposal 2, “is a very important step. I think it will really open new horizons for our collaboration with (the University of) Michigan.”
The Israeli scientist was also guardedly optimistic about the new clinical trial on patients with spinal cord injuries, for which biotech firm Geron recently won FDA approval. It represents the first human trials of therapies derived from embryonic stem cells and, as such, has received much press attention.
Reubinoff called the trial an important first step in translating stem cell science into potential treatments.
“Benny is doing truly amazing work,” said Feldman, a neurologist at U-M. “He is conducting some of the most important research in the medical world, and he is bringing us closer to the day we will be able to use stem cells to treat human disease.
“I look forward to working with him.”
At the luncheon following his lecture, Reubinoff echoed those thoughts.
“The connection and relationships we are building with the Taubman Institute is very important,” he said. “We are very much in line with your desire to exploit the new science of stem cells in improving the health of people.”
From the earliest days of embryonic stem cell research, only ten years ago, Israel and Hadassah have been at the forefront of this new field of inquiry.
“We are so proud of all that Dr. Reubinoff and Hadassah have accomplished,” said Judi Schram, past president of Hadassah’s Detroit Chapter, who helped organize the luncheon. Hadassah is an international organization of Jewish women formed in 1912 to improve health-care for all people in Israel.
“Putting Ben and Eva together, Hadassah and the Taubman Institute, really gives us the dream team of medical research,” said Schram. “It’s only a matter of time before stem cell therapy is part of every physician’s tool kit.”
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