Posted for Mysty119

[barbara]

Monday, January 7, 2008 - 2:51 PM EST
RPCI, UB receive stem cell research funds
Business First of Buffalo - by Annemarie Franczyk Business First


More than $1 million in state grants are targeted for Buffalo research institutions as part of New York's new $600 million stem cell research program.

The program's first awards -- granted to 25 organizations and totaling $14.5 million -- were approved Monday at a meeting in New York City of the Funding Committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Board.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute was granted $419,442 and the University at Buffalo, $606,422, under the program that was created in the Gov. Eliot Spitzer's 2007-2008 budget.

The one-year development grants are designed to increase the capacity of New York state research institutions in stem cell discovery, through the purchase of large equipment shared by researchers or by engaging in specialized training for scientists to enter stem cell research.

Research institutions in New York that received at least $1 million in biomedical funding last year from the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation were eligible to apply for between $100,000 and $1 million in the state program.

Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York, called the investment in stem cell research a historic event.

"A commitment of this magnitude enables New York's medical research facilities to continue to make breakthroughs in stem cell research and biomedicine. The knowledge gained and the advances made in these emerging fields will help shape the future of health care, and augment providers' ability to save lives and deliver the best possible treatment and care," Sisto said.

 

[barbara]

Mysty 119 found some more

Thanks for being on the lookout Mysty 119. Barb


Madison, Wis. - New stem cell lines that are derived from a promising new technique should be housed and distributed by the WiCell Research Institute, says Carl Gulbrandsen, president of WiCell.

According to a report in the Appleton Post Crescent, Gulbrandsen has told the National Institutes of Health that WiCell would like to house and distribute the new cell lines. WiCell, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, already is home to the National Stem Cell Bank, which now has 17 of the 21 existing embryonic stem cell lines that receive federal funding.

Gulbrandsen, who also is the managing director of WARF, said WiCell has the staff expertise and skill sets to handle the new lines, and that the bank's distribution would relieve demands on University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Jamie Thomson.

Thomson, who was the first to isolate human embryonic stem cells, has received a number of requests for his cells since the discovery was reported, Gulbrandsen said. Thomson and other scientists at UW-Madison and in Japan announced in November that they have developed a new technique that can turn human skin cells into stem cells.

That discovery raised hopes for increased federal funding for embryonic stem cell research because the new technique does not involve the destruction of embryos in order to derive stem cells. If perfected in validation tests, the technique could eliminate the ethical questions that have been raised by embryonic stem cell research.

Scientists believe these cells hold the promise for medical breakthroughs because they can become virtually any kind of cell in the human body.

Last month, UW-Madison called on the NIH to provide it with federal funding to create cell lines using the new technique.