bio21 signs up stem cell leader Adult stem cell trial boost for...

bio21 signs up stem cell leader Adult stem cell trial boost for Melbourne: Bio21 signs up stem cell leader

International adult stem cell leader Cygenics will expand its Melbourne research base at the Bio21 Institute, as part of the company’s efforts to grow and differentiate adult stem cells outside the body – for cancer treatment and for drug discovery.

The announcement was made by Victorian Innovation Minister John Brumby at the opening of the University of Melbourne’s new Bio21 Institute.

“We want the Bio21 Institute to act as a catalyst – building Melbourne’s biotech research base – and creating new commercial opportunities. And this is a great start,” said Professor Dick Wettenhall, Institute director.

“Cygenics is investing in staff, research and clinical trials at the Bio21 Institute, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute,” he said.

By 2012, Jain PharmaBiotech, a Swiss-based consultancy, estimates that overall global demand for stem cell transplants will reach US$7.8 billion.

At the Murdoch, Cygenics plans to take adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood, grow them in simulated bone marrow and transfuse them back into patients to boost blood cell production. This technology has been transferred from Cygenics’ Singapore and Boston facilities to the Murdoch, where the final preparations ready for clinical trials is expected to be completed by December 2005.

“The potential of stem cell therapy for many diseases is enormous [but] there simply aren’t enough stem cells available. This research may well put an end to this limitation,” says Dr David Ashley, head of the Murdoch’s cancer centre.

In separate trials at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, the company plans to take skin cells and adult stem cells from cancer patients and grow them in a simulated thymus, creating certain new white blood cells (T-cells) that will be transfused back to boost the immune system following chemotherapy.

The treatment will initially be aimed at patients with blood-related cancers and patients with low T-cell counts as a result of treatment. The technology to grow the cells has been transferred from Cygenics Boston facility to the Peter Mac and clinical trials are expected to start in early 2006.

Now Cygenics has appointed two new staff to work at the Bio21 Institute, and is planning to initiate a new project – creating a simulated liver that will produce liver-like cells for rapid drug screening.

“It started with a coffee at the BIO Conference in Washington DC in 2003 with Dick Wettenhall, the Bio21 Director,” said Mr Ian Brown, Cygenics Chief Operating Officer.

“Eighteen coffees and many meetings later, Dick has proven to us that the Bio21 Institute has the space, the people, the contacts, the location and the equipment we need to drive our research forward.”

“We believe the biotech business incubator at the Bio21 Institute will provide the multidisciplinary environment our projects need,” said Mr Brown.

Please contact Niall Byrne on 0417 131 977, Sarah Brooker on 0413 332 489, or Elaine Mulcahy 0421 641 506 for more information.

Info on the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute (checkout the mock shots of the buidling - looks awesome) - a world class biotechnology precinc in Melbourne.

http://www.bio21.unimelb.edu.au/Institute.html