FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1 FEBRUARY 2000

     Contact: Terry Devitt
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     608-262-8282
     University of Wisconsin-Madison

     New institute formed to distribute human stem cells

MADISON -- In an effort to move human embryonic stem cell technology
into the mainstream of academic and corporate research, the Wisconsin
Alumni Research Foundation has established a private subsidiary whose
primary purpose will be to distribute the cells to qualified scientists.

Embryonic stem cell lines were first successfully established late in
1998 by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The patents that govern the technology and use of the cells are held
exclusively by WARF, a private not-for-profit corporation that manages
intellectual property in the interest
of the university.

Stem cells are the parent cells of all cells in the body. An ability to
grow the cells in the laboratory and, someday, to direct them to become
specific kinds of cells -- blood cells, muscle cells, or brain cells --
has the potential to revolutionize transplant medicine and underpin
lifelong treatment for a host of debilitating diseases, especially
cell-based disorders such as diabetes mellitus, PARKINSON'S disease and
some forms of leukemia.

The primary mission of the new non-profit institute, to be known as
WiCell Research Institute, Inc., will be "to supply cells to support
research for both academic and non-academic researchers," according to
Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF's managing director.

The institute's scientific director will be James Thomson, the
UW-Madison developmental biologist in whose laboratory human embryonic
stem cells were first isolated. Thomson will remain on the Wisconsin
faculty, however.

"Our intention is to make these cells widely available, and at a low
cost for academic researchers," Gulbrandsen says.

So far, more than 100 requests for the cells have been received by
Thomson's lab and at least a dozen companies have approached WARF about
stem cell technology.

However, many scientists, especially academic scientists who depend on
federal support to operate their laboratories, have been waiting for the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to finalize a set of guidelines for
use of the cells. Those guidelines, after nearly a year of formulation
and deliberation, were made public by
NIH late last year and, when implemented, are expected to greatly
accelerate demand for the cells as they would permit the use of federal
money for the first time to conduct human stem cell-related research.

In addition to the promise of widespread clinical application, the cells
hold the potential for developing powerful new drug discovery schemes.
Biologists think, too, that the cells could lend new insight into the
now largely unknown early stages of human development, knowledge that
could spur new treatments for infertility, birth defects and help
prevent pregnancy loss.

However, if the promise of stem cell technology is to be fulfilled,
Thomson says, it is essential that the cells be made readily available
to the broad scientific community: "The important thing is now we can
distribute the cells to as many scientists as want them," he says.

By making human embryonic stem cells widely available to researchers in
both corporate and academic laboratories, some of the technical
roadblocks to full development of the technology can be attacked,
Thomson says. For example, while stem cells in culture have been
observed to differentiate into the complete array of human cells,
scientists do not yet know how to specifically direct them to form pure
populations of desired cell types.

Virginia Hinshaw, dean of the UW-Madison Graduate School and the
university's senior research officer, is a member of the new institute's
board of directors. She says that the establishment of the WiCell
Research Institute will strengthen the ability of others to work with
the cells and advance a technology that, despite its great promise, has
been limited to an exclusive handful of laboratories, mostly in the U.S.
and Europe. Until final implementation of the new NIH guidelines occurs,
any laboratory that receives federal support is prohibited from working
with the cells.

The information gained from growing these cells and studying them is
necessary to move a technology with huge potential from the laboratory
to the clinic, Hinshaw says: "Now we can develop a greater and greater
data bank of knowledge about these cells and all of us will gain from
that."

Scientists interested in using the Wisconsin cells must sign a licensing
agreement that includes some restrictions on the use of the cells,
Gulbrandsen says. For example, use of the experimental cells for cloning
for intermingling with intact embryos will not be permitted.

Founded in 1925, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is the oldest
and one of the most successful of all university intellectual property
organizations. Through the management of a large intellectual property
portfolio and the investment of royalties and licensing fees, WARF has
created an endowment that returns on the order of $20 million annually
to UW-Madison for unrestricted use in research and education.

     Other Contacts:
     Carl Gulbrandsen
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     608-263-9395

     Virginia Hinshaw
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     608-262-1044

     Gayle Kirkpatrick
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     608-263-6050

James Thomson can be reached through Terry Devitt at 608-262-8282,
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--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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