Thursday, July 24, 2008
GSK gives the Harvard Stem Cell Institute $25 million.
By Emily Singer
Today, the pharma company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced a
five-year, $25-million-plus collaborative agreement with the Harvard Stem Cell
Institute to develop new methods for screening drugs with stem cells.
"GSK believes stem cell science has great potential to aid the discovery of
new medicines by improving the screening, identification, and development of
new compounds," said Patrick Vallance, head of drug discovery at GSK, in a statement
released by the company.
Big Pharma has mostly shied away from investing in stem-cell
research. But drug screening, which some scientists say is likely to be one of
the biggest near-term benefits of stem cells, is a growing area of interest.
Because stem cells can be differentiated into any type of
cell in the body, they present an ideal source for screening. For example, scientists
can determine how a candidate heart-disease drug affects heart cells and also
look for potential side effects in liver or other cell types.
The time appears ripe for investing, because scientists can
now use new reprogramming
techniques to develop stem cells from patients with specific diseases. (While
no one has yet reported this, word among stem-cell researchers is that it has
been done.) That means they can make nerve cells from stem cells derived from
an Alzheimer's patient and then
examine how candidate Alzheimer's
drugs affect the diseased cells.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
When Scientific American says, "ES cells, unlike adult stem cells, cannot be used directly in therapy because they cause cancer," you can't really believe the push for this is to put in patients.
WayCurious
07/25/2008
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