Taubman Institute hosts first statewide meeting on stem cell research
Approximately 35 scientists, regulatory experts and economic development officials convened on June 4 in the first statewide stem cell research meeting since the passage of Proposal 2 in the November election, which lifted restrictions on this crucial new field of inquiry.
The session, hosted by the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, was a chance for scientists and other life science professionals to learn about each other's work and to brainstorm ways to work more closely together. Led by Doug Engel, Chair of the Taubman Institute’s new Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, the meeting took place in the Biomedical Sciences Research Building at the University of Michigan.
Four universities were represented: U-M, Wayne State, Michigan State and Oakland. Collaboration among the schools is key, the researchers agreed, if Michigan is to speed promising stem cell discoveries from the state's laboratories down the path toward therapies for patients.
The group heard about one pioneering partnership between Carol Brenner, co-director of Wayne State's Peri-Implantation Development Laboratory, and Sue O'Shea, co-director of the Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies.
The Consortium, launched at U-M in March, is the first major embryonic stem cell research program in Michigan since the November election.
Ed Goldman, U-M Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Cynthia Wilbanks, Vice President for Government Relations, spoke to the group about the current status of regulation nationally and in Michigan and the need to inform the public of the strong guidelines in place governing stem cell research.
A variety of economic development officials and life science advocates described their activities to promote stem cell research as part of the state’s burgeoning biotech sector. Those included representatives from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Oakland County’s Medical Main Street initiative, Ann Arbor’s SPARK, the Southwest Michigan First Life Sciences Fund, MichBio, MPI Research, The Michigan Israel Business Bridge and Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures.
The conference was so successful that the group decided to hold these meetings regularly. The next meeting with take place at Michigan State.
After the meeting, Brenner, O'Shea and Gary Smith, co-director of the U-M Consortium, spoke with reporters, along with Michigan State physiology professor Jose Cibelli, who directs the MSU Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory.
Cibelli said that the stem cell discoveries the group hopes to accelerate won’t merely translate into a short-term boost for the state's ailing economy. The benefit will be "strong intellectual properties (patents) that can sustain Michigan," he said.
Also attending the event was G. Rasul Chaudhry, an Oakland University professor of biological sciences involved in tissue engineering research using embryonic stem cells and cord-blood stem cells.
The researchers discussed such possibilities as sharing efforts to educate students in stem cell research, joint ways to seek funding in addition to federal funds, and a joint oversight committee for human pluripotent stem cell research in the state, rather than separate ones for each institution.
"That way, as a state, we would all be on the same page," Smith said.
Media coverage:
