The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey
Archived article from Apr 26, 2004
By Joseph Blumberg
Governor to host public forum at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) have moved to the forefront of a biomedical research revolution that promises new treatments and cures for a host of devastating diseases and disorders. In his Feb. 24 budget address, Governor James E. McGreevey proposed $6.5 million as initial funding for the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey to be managed jointly by Rutgers and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
In a public forum scheduled for May 12 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Governor McGreevey will formally announce to the hundreds of expected attendees the establishment of the institute and explain the state’s role in creating this research organization. Rutgers’ Wise Young and UMDNJ’s Ira Black will speak about the nature of stem cell research and the potential it holds for the 128 million Americans who suffer from acute, chronic and degenerative diseases. These include conditions such as spinal cord and brain injury, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, stroke, diabetes, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.
Young is chair of the Rutgers’ department of cell biology and neuroscience, and founding director of the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience. Black is chair of the department of neuroscience and cell biology and director of the Stem Cell Research Center at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Young and Black are working closely together, and with New Jersey officials, to ensure the institute’s success.
Darwin Prockop, director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University, and Commissioner Clifton R. Lacy, of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, also are scheduled to address an audience that will include academic researchers, representatives of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and individuals who could benefit from therapies derived from stem cell research.
Stem cells have the unique ability to develop into different types of cells in the body. Ordinarily these versatile cells are responsible for building and maintaining tissues and organs throughout the body, but based on their ability to morph, they could be used to rebuild damaged or diseased parts of the body. Stem cells can be found in bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, adult brain and spinal cord, skin, blood, intestines and other tissues.
The institute will draw talented researchers from all over the world, adding to the outstanding cadre of Rutgers and UMDNJ faculty doing pioneering studies in New Jersey. This initiative will open avenues for new partnerships with private industry, especially with the state’s economically important pharmaceutical companies. Recruitment of the top stem cell scientists in the country to the institute already has begun. “Rutgers and UMDNJ are attractive places to perform stem cell research because of the strong basic and applied research that is already ongoing. Our proximity to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries will draw scientists who want to make a difference,” Black said.
“Stem cells offer us an opportunity to alleviate human suffering on a grand scale,” added Young. “It is a chance that we cannot afford to let pass because the hopes of millions of people, here and around the world, rest on the success of this work.”
Young’s commitment to the pursuit of innovative therapies is not new. As a neurosurgeon in New York during the 1970s, he met a high school wrestler who had broken his neck. Deeply distressed that he could neither limit the damage to the young man’s spinal cord nor offer a regenerative therapy, Young went back to the laboratory to look for answers. Young has subsequently demonstrated a deep and personal commitment to the search for effective treatments, firmly convinced that stem cell research holds the keys to a potential cure for spinal cord injury and other catastrophic conditions.
In Young’s lab, scientists are transplanting stem cells derived from neonatal blood and umbilical cord blood into the spinal cord of rats after injury. Preliminary findings suggest that these cells will survive and migrate in the spinal cord and help restore nerve function. Black’s research team has succeeded in converting adult bone marrow stem cells into nerve cells, which they transplant into the brains and spinal cords of laboratory animals whose biology mimics Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury.
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