Stanford embraces stem cell research

Stanford University this week announced the creation of an interdisciplinary institute for cancer/stem cell biology and medicine, funded by a $12 million contribution from an anonymous donor. The institute, to be headed by Irving Weissman, MD, professor of cancer biology, proposes to unite the fields of stem cell biology and cancer cell biology to develop treatments for cancer and other diseases. In addition, Stanford medical school students will be able to take options in the fields of stem cell and cancer biology and medicine. "It will be short of a full MD/PhD program," said Weissman, "but one that allows the med school to include both med students and PhD students in these areas of basic and translational medicine." The institute's planned work will look for insights into the self-regenerative abilities of cancer cells in the similar properties of stem cells, Weissman told The Scientist, as well as furthering understanding of stem cells themselves. "At one end we are exploring the ways normal stem cells and cancer stem cells self-renew, and whether any of the discovered protooncogenes are part of the self-renewal pathways. At the other end, we wish to explore new tissue- and organ-specific adult stem cells for the capacity to regenerate those tissues and organs after local cancer-ablative and organ/tissue-ablative therapies."Another important objective will be to create disease models for study by producing "human pluripotent cell lines from the nuclei of patients with genetically-determined, usually multigenic, diseases," Weissman said. "For example, we hope to transfer nuclei from various disease cells, such as breast cancers or Lou Gehrig's disease, into host cells that would enable them to become pluripotent, perhaps using some of the 64 existing stem cell lines. Then one might allow the pluripotent cells to differentiate in vitro to study both the steps in pathogenesis, and also the effects of one or more of the disease associated genes in the process at a cellular level," Weissman explained. He credits "elegant" work by Rudolph Jaenisch and George Daley as the basis for these further experiments. "They used a simple model where one gene was enough to get the disease—you need a complex model for a multigenic disease." Weissman acknowledges that the work "might require nuclear transplant (NT) technology or some variant of Verfaillie's stromal pluripotent cell generation." The Associated Press first reported Stanford's plans for the new institute on Tuesday, emphasizing that "cloning" technology would be involved in its work. Frustrated by inaccuracies in the AP report and public controversy generated since, Weissman stressed that the institute's major focus will be on adult stem cells and cancer cells, and that primary work will likely be done in mouse systems before it can be translated to human cells. "We also believe that it shall be important to be at the forefront of mouse and human pluripotent cell experimentation," Weissman said. "Advances in understanding how somatic nuclei can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent will be crucial, so that eventually one could use the NT technology with high efficiency, whether the recipient enucleated cells are already pluripotent or turn out to be enucleated eggs." It would likely be 3–to–5 years before research in NT technology had progressed far enough to know if human eggs would be required, and if so, he believes by that time ovaries obtained as the byproduct of surgeries (such as hysterectomies) would be the better source, obviating the need for discarded embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics.The state of California recently endorsed stem cell research and the University of California, San Francisco last summer launched a new Stem Cell Discovery initiative with a $5 million donation of private funds. But surveys released just this week confirm that public support for such research is still mixed.Of Weissman's planned work and public reaction, Nobel laureate and Caltech president David Baltimore said, "I think he's doing something that's wonderful, taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities in stem cells today. There are reasons why cloning and stem cells get involved with each other, and Irv is facing up to that in his discussions. But I think the press has skewed the whole nature of what he's doing."

Stanford embraces stem cell research

New cancer biology institute will seek basic insights and translational opportunities.

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