MRC announces Cambridge stem cell centre funding
The UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) has pledged funding of
The UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) has pledged funding of £1.5m towards a stem cell research centre of excellence at Cambridge.
The MRC Cambridge Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine will form the core of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, an interdisciplinary coalition of research teams addressing the challenges of stem cell genetics, biology and medicine. The university has already demonstrated its commitment by providing £10m of its own funding, and by endowing a prestigious professorship.
The Cambridge Institute will gather together world-class scientists investigating the fundamental principles of stem cells and how they can be used to benefit the sufferers of conditions like diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis.
It will undertake three main programmes of research: stem cell genetics, to be directed by Professor Azim Surani, department of physiology; stem cell biology (director to be recruited); and stem cell medicine, to be directed by Professor Roger Pedersen of the department of surgery.
The mission of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is to harness basic knowledge of cellular and developmental biology for therapy of human diseases through stem cells. This will be accomplished by fusing the university's basic research efforts with its clinical expertise to generate a stem cell research enterprise that not only accelerates the translation of stem cell biology into clinical use, but also generates fundamental insights into mechanisms of normal human development and the influence of stem cells in birth defects and cancer.
'Stem cell research will have a major impact on understanding the developmental and regenerative capacity of the human body as a whole,' said Professor Pedersen. 'Stem cell research has a profound potential for treating currently debilitating diseases, such late-onset conditions as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancers, heart and blood diseases, and thus has the capacity to markedly improve the quality of life.'
More than 20 Cambridge research groups will be working on stem-cell research and closely related disciplines, under the auspices of the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, representing more than £30m of current research funding.