Wisconsin Stem Celll Now

Stem Cell Now Blog

April 16th, 2008

New Executive Director of WiCell

Erik Forsberg appointed executive director of WiCell Research Institute

April 9, 2008

by Janet Kelly

Erik Forsberg has been named to the newly created position of executive director of the WiCell Research Institute. In this position, Forsberg will direct all operations of the private, non-profit institute, a supporting organization of the University of Wisconsin-Madison that provides core services to UW-Madison stem cell researchers and operates the National Stem Cell Bank.

Forsberg most recently served as the senior director of scientific development at Pharming Group, where he directed scientific programs and established research and development agreements with academic and commercial organizations. His past positions include director of cloning technologies at Minitube of America, vice president of development at Infigen and assistant professor in the UW-Madison Department of Physiology.

He holds a doctorate in physiological and pharmacological sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Kalamazoo College in Michigan. He has served on the UW-Madison Master’s of Science in Biotechnology Advisory Board, has presented as an invited lecturer at numerous conferences in the U.S. and abroad, is an inventor named on eight patents and has authored numerous scientific publications.

“Over the past six months, we conducted an international search for an executive director for WiCell, and are extremely fortunate to have found the best candidate right here in Madison,” states Carl Gulbrandsen, president of the WiCell Research Institute. “Erik brings to WiCell impressive academic credentials, an innovative scientific background and hands-on commercial and management experience. These strengths, combined with his in-depth knowledge of UW-Madison and the international scientific community, make him an exceptional leader for WiCell.”

As executive director of WiCell, Forsberg will lead strategies to enhance the core services WiCell provides to stem cell researchers at UW-Madison and ensure effective operations of the National Stem Cell Bank, which the institute hosts for the National Institutes of Health. He will continue WiCell’s initiatives in developing collaborative relationships with key industry, academic and governmental partners in the local, national and international scientific communities.

The WiCell Research Institute was founded in 1999 to advance the science of stem cells. WiCell supports stem cell research at UW-Madison, operates the National Stem Cell Bank, provides training for scientists and offers educational outreach programs for K-12 students and the community.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

April 2nd, 2008

Honor for WARF Director

Andrew Cohn has been instrumental in many hESC activities. He excels at explaining this technology in easy-to-understand terms. Kudos to Andrew Cohn. Lindaland

From the UW Wire

Association of University Technology Managers honors WARF’s Cohn

April 1, 2008

Andrew Cohn, director of government and association relations for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), received the Bayh-Dole Award from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) during its annual meeting on Feb. 28 in San Diego.

Every year, the award is presented to one individual who has been an ardent supporter of the practice of technology transfer. The commendation cites Cohn’s outstanding service to the profession and to AUTM through his tireless work in public policy advocacy and education. Among other issues, Cohn has been involved in efforts to improve U.S. patent law, maintain the federal Bayh-Dole Act and address global health concerns for underdeveloped countries.

“We are very proud of Andy and his accomplishments over the years,” says Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of WARF. “He has built strong relationships with our Congressional delegation and state legislators, has been instrumental in initiating collaborative advocacy activities among the Big Ten Conference universities, as well as forming mutually beneficial relationships among university associations and other technology transfer organizations across the country.”

Cohn joined WARF as manager of government and media relations in 2001 and became director of government and association relations in 2007. Prior to joining WARF, he worked as the executive assistant for then-Wisconsin Attorney General Jim Doyle for eight years.

Howard Bremer, emeritus general counsel at WARF and one of the founding fathers of AUTM, was the first recipient of the award in 1980.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

March 31st, 2008

Pay for Eggs?

This is from today’s The Scientist online blog.It raises interesting questions about where to get oocytes for hESC research.
Some of the issues are:

  • serious risks for egg donors? Anestheis, hyper-stimulation, what are the long-term effects?
  • should egg and sperm donor’s consent?
  • what are the terms for confidentiality and anonymity?
  • Moore v. Regents of the University of California?
  • Is payment for eggs ok for IVF and not hESCR?
  • Chain of custody of eggs?
  • and so on

Lindaland
CIRM to pay for eggs?

Posted by Elie Dolgin
[Entry posted at 27th March 2008 06:22 PM GMT]
 
Recent comments by California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) President Alan Trounson imply that the agency may be looking for ways to pay women for their eggs for stem cell research.

Currently, laws in California and Massachusetts — two leader states in stem cell research — prohibit compensation for eggs. But with a shortage of available human eggs for research purposes, the issue remains a national sticking point to the progress of stem cell research and cloning science.

At a meeting of CIRM’s Standards Working Group (SWG) on February 28, Trounson called on the CIRM to explore ways to reimburse women for eggs, according to the transcripts of the meeting.

“The demand for oocytes may be way beyond what we can possibly deliver,” said Trounson, in response to the growing number of applications to use human eggs in research. He cited the failure of many researchers to obtain eggs through donation without financial reward. “Women are not prepared to go through those procedures without some form of compensation,” he said.

Proposition 71, which was passed as a statewide ballot initiative by voters in 2004 established CIRM as an agency to award grants and loans for stem cell research. Although the legislation established stem cell research as a state constitutional right in California, it prohibits compensation for eggs, but allows reimbursement of direct expenses.

One idea that arose at the meeting was to subsidize the cost of fertility treatment for women donating eggs, as is currently done in other countries, such as the UK. However, opponents of this move argue that covering the costs of in vitro fertilization (IVF) is another form of paying for eggs. “[If] a person gets a discount in IVF, it’s compensation,” said Susan Fogel of the Pro-Choice Alliance at the meeting.

Trounson “called for a discussion to look into various options,” said Don Gibbons, CIRM’s chief communication officer. “There are no pre-conceived notions of what we want [the SWG] to do.”

There is currently “no regulatory proposal on the table,” said Geoff Lomax, senior officer for the SWG, who described the February 28th meeting as a “thinking out loud session.” He said that plans are underway for a meeting in the late summer or early fall that will bring together scientists and special interest groups to look into different options for obtaining human eggs. “There needs to be a future meeting to talk about the issue of egg donation,” Lomax told The Scientist.

Kevin Eggan of Harvard University’s Stem Cell Institute told The Scientist he was “heartened” by Trounson’s comments, but doubts that CIRM can do much in its role as a regulatory agency within the existing legislation. He called on the National Academy of Sciences to revisit the issue, stating that women should be compensated for providing eggs for stem cell research, just as they are for donating eggs to treat infertility and as they were in the early days of IVF research. “Clearly that’s the expectation of these women for egg donation,” he said. “Human research donors, which is what these women are, should be compensated for their time, their effort, and any duress they incur.”

Jeff Sheehy, a CIRM board member, said he reacted “viscerally” to Trounson’s announcement. “It seemed to fly in the face of Proposition 71,” he said. Sheehy told The Scientist that Proposition 71 was approved following a campaign that promised a no-compensation policy for CIRM-funded research. “Why go against the will of the legislation in what voters thought they were approving?” he said.

A good review of the issues raised at the Feb. 28 meeting can be found at the California Stem Cell Report blog.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

March 25th, 2008

Therapeutic Cloning and PD Hope

Latest news on SCNT (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer) and Parkinson’s Disease in mice. Will it translate to humans? We don’t know yet. The article below is from the www.medicalnewstoday.com

Therapeutic Cloning Treats Parkinson’s Disease In Mice

25 Mar 2008

Research led by investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has shown that therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease in mice. The study’s results are published in the March 23 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

For the first time, researchers showed that therapeutic cloning or SCNT has been successfully used to treat disease in the same subjects from whom the initial cells were derived. While this current work is in animals, it could have future implications as this method may be an effective way to reduce transplant rejection and enhance recovery in other diseases and in other organ systems.

In therapeutic cloning or SCNT, the nucleus of a somatic cell from a donor subject is inserted into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed. This cell then develops into a blastocyst from which embryonic stem cells can be harvested and differentiated for therapeutic purposes. As the genetic information in the resulting stem cells comes from the donor subject, therapeutic cloning or SCNT would yield subject-specific cells that are spared by the immune system after transplantation.

The new study shows that therapeutic cloning can treat Parkinson’s disease in a mouse model. The scientists used skin cells from the tail of the animal to generate customized or autologous dopamine neurons the missing neurons in Parkinson’s disease. The mice that received neurons derived from individually matched stem cell lines exhibited neurological improvement. But when these neurons were grafted into mice that did not genetically match the transplanted cells, the cells did not survive well and the mice did not recover.

The work was led by senior author Lorenz Studer, MD, Head of the Stem Cell and Tumor Biology Laboratory within the Sloan-Kettering Institute at MSKCC, and lead author Viviane Tabar, MD, Neurosurgeon and stem cell scientist at MSKCC. The work was performed in collaboration with scientists at the Riken Institute in Kobe, Japan.

Other MSKCC researchers who contributed to this study are: Mark Tomishima, Georgia Panagiotakos, George Al-Shamy, Bill Chan, and Jayanthi Menon. Scientists in Japan include group leader Teruhiko Wakayama and scientists Eiji Mizutani, Sayaka Wakayama and Hiroshi Ohta. This research was supported by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Starr Tri-institutional Stem Cell Initiative, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Michael W. McCarthy Foundation and an unrestricted grant from the Kinetics Foundation.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Ave.
New York, NY 10021
United States
http://www.mskcc.org

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

March 25th, 2008

James Thomson

Information on Jamie Thomson - having heard him speak several times here in Madison - in class and at ‘events’ this article hits the nail right on the head.

“Understatement is a character trait of Wisconsin’s most famous biologist. It drives reporters crazy. “I think of Jamie as the Chuck Yeager of biology — working at the very edge of the envelope, and yet curiously, almost maddeningly, laconic when pressed to talk about what he has done or plans to do next,” laments Rick Weiss, science reporter for the Washington Post. “The guy seems to have made it a personal challenge to understate his accomplishments, killing every effort to get a dramatic quote or a jazzy sense of where the science is going.”

The article is @

http://www.news.wisc.edu/on-wisconsin/soft-cell/

Enjoy, and boy am I happy this is happening in Wisconsin.

Lindaland

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries