Harvard Stem Cell Institute Hosts Inaugural Symposia
Monday, April 26, 2004

Seven Harvard schools, seven Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, and close to 100 researchers and scientists are
banding together in an ambitious new institute with a simple goal: to explore the promising area of stem cell research.

"The Harvard Stem Cell Institute is an important effort to help unlock one of the fundamental mysteries of life, and
could lead to important new medical treatments," says Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers.

Stem cells, with their ability to develop into specialized tissue cells, have excited researchers with their promise to
help correct maladies within the body. By understanding how they work, researchers hope they can learn to develop
nerve, blood, heart and other kinds of cells to be used to treat a wide spectrum of diseases.

Organizers of the effort hope that the Institute's stimulating effect will extend beyond Harvard, as new techniques,
tools and knowledge foster research in other locations. The Institute's co-director, Douglas Melton, has already taken
the first steps in that direction. He announced in March that he had developed 17 new embryonic stem cell lines with
private funding and that he would share those cells freely with other investigators.

In its initial phase, the Institute will be a "virtual" center, supporting research and drawing scientists together who
work in laboratories at the affiliated institutions around Boston and Cambridge. Researchers will develop core
laboratory facilities and needed technology to perform functions such as cell sorting, imaging of stem cells in their
natural environments, and the transfer of nuclei between cells. The institute will also seek to create a community
among researchers through frequent informal gatherings focused on a particular scientific problem, through monthly
seminars with outside experts, and through annual symposia, such as today's.

Within a few years, Harvard hopes to add a central physical location for the institute, complete with laboratory
facilities, but does not have specific plans at this point in time. Though some researchers would continue to work in
their own labs at different locations, the physical closeness enabled by a central lab facility should allow informal
meetings and foster an environment that will lead to new ideas and lines of inquiry.

SOURCE: Advance for Administrators of the Laboratory
http://www.advanceforal.com/common/editorial/editorial.aspx?CC=33446

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MASSACHUSETTS: Private Stem Cell Research Widens ... Creation of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Posted 4/25/2004 8:14 PM

The creation of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, which was announced Friday, represents the latest privately financed
entry into a controversial research arena.

The institute will coordinate the work of nearly 100 researchers seeking cures for such ailments as diabetes, leukemia,
muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's and heart disease. Stem cells are master cells that become other kinds of tissue.

This brings to nine the number of private stem cell research centers across the country.

Researchers have been calling for the creation of more human embryonic stem cell lines since federal spending was
restricted in 2001. Since then, federal money has gone toward an approved list of existing lines, now totaling 18.

The research is controversial because embryos must be destroyed to harvest the cells.

Harvard already is on the front line of stem cell research. In March, Doug Melton, co-director of the new institute,
unveiled 17 new stem cell lines available at no cost.

USA TODAY research has found that requests for these cells rival or exceed samples sent from National Institutes of
Health-approved lines.

SOURCE: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-04-25-stemcell-usat_x.htm

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Harvard Bigwigs Tout Stem Cell Center
By Jennifer Heldt Powell
Saturday, April 24, 2004

Harvard University's new stem cell research institute will help Massachusetts take the lead in a potentially huge
market, center backers said yesterday.

A ban on using federal funds for research on new stem cell lines has already pushed much of the research to other
countries, said supporters at yesterday's unveiling of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

With limited federal funding available for embryonic stem cell research, private institutions must fill the void, said
Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard's president. ``There has been an abdication of national responsibility in this area,''
Summers said.

Under an order from President Bush, funding is limited to lines of embryonic stem cells created prior to 2000. That
action is shaping the stem cell market, said Harvard professor Debora L. Spar.

``This is going to be a very big market,'' she said. ``There is already a widespread and deep-seated demand for the
things stem cells can provide.''

Researchers believe stem cells hold the keys to cures and treatments for a wide variety of ailments from diabetes to
Parkinson's disease. Investors and entrepreneurs will rush to get involved just as soon as discoveries come out of the
labs, Spar said.

SOURCE: Boston Herald, MA
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=2380

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Harvard Stem Cell Institute Will Call On Expertise From Around University To Turn Research Into Therapy
Friday, 23-Apr-2004, by News-Medical

Seven Harvard schools, seven teaching hospitals, and close to 100 researchers and scientists are banding together in an
ambitious new institute with a simple goal: to use stem cells to help the 150 million people nationally living with or
dying from five types of organ and tissue failure.

The goal's simplicity belies the complexity of the task at hand, however. To achieve its aims, the new Harvard Stem
Cell Institute (HSCI) will mount the largest, most comprehensive effort of its kind. It will tap resources across the
University, break new scientific ground, pioneer new medical treatments, identify significant nongovernmental funding
sources, and wrestle with ethical, religious, and political ramifications.

Along the way, the institute will bring together isolated investigators who are already performing cutting-edge stem
cell research, making Harvard one of the leading centers for this type of work in the world.

"The Harvard Stem Cell Institute is an important effort to help unlock one of the fundamental mysteries of life, and
could lead to important new medical treatments," said Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers.

Stem cells, with their ability to develop into specialized tissue cells, have excited researchers with their promise.
By understanding how they work, researchers hope they can learn to develop nerve, blood, bone, and other kinds of cells
to be used to treat a wide spectrum of diseases.

The institute will encourage stem cell research as it progresses on several fronts. Research into adult stem cells is
the most advanced. These cells create specific tissue types, such as blood, nerve, or muscle. Blood stem cells are
already being used in treatments, particularly for leukemia and other blood cancers. Work on adult and embryonic stem
cells in animals, as a way to understand their function in humans, is also progressing rapidly.

Some of the most promising - and controversial - stem cell work is with human embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem
cells are unique because they can develop into any cell in the body. The Harvard Stem Cell Research Committee,
established to review nonfederally funded research on human embryonic stem cells, will review research proposals before
they go forward.

In addition to the research being conducted by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School, and by
researchers at the Harvard teaching hospitals, the institute will draw on resources across the University to examine
the ethical, political, religious, economic, and other ramifications of the research.

"Given the potential we have here, to not take advantage of it would be a tragedy in a way," said institute Co-Director
and Harvard Medical School Professor David Scadden, who also serves as director of Massachusetts General Hospital's
Center for Regenerative Medicine and Technology. "We hope to create a crucible in which these interactions [among
researchers] will happen."

The institute

In its initial phase, the institute will be a "virtual" center, supporting research and drawing scientists together who
work in laboratories that may be physically distant.

Researchers will develop core laboratory facilities and needed technology to perform functions such as cell sorting,
imaging of stem cells in their natural environments, and the transfer of nuclei between cells.

The institute will also seek to create a community among researchers through frequent informal gatherings focused on a
particular scientific problem, through monthly seminars with outside experts, and through two symposia in its first
year and then an annual symposium after that.

Within a few years, Scadden and the institute's other co-director, Douglas Melton, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of
the Natural Sciences and investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said they hope to add a central physical
location for the institute, complete with laboratory facilities. Though some researchers would continue to work in
their own labs at different locations, the physical closeness of a central lab facility should allow informal meetings
and foster an environment that will lead to new ideas and lines of inquiry.

Though basic science is critical to the effort, Scadden said the institute's reason-to-be is a practical one. Its main
goal is to develop scientific advancements into practical treatments for patients.

"This is predominantly driven by the scientific opportunity to make a difference in human health," Scadden said. "If at
the end of the day, we haven't come up with some clinical results that have an impact on human health, we will not have
accomplished our goals."

Organizers of the effort hope that the institute's stimulating effect will extend beyond Harvard, as new techniques,
tools, and knowledge foster research in other locations. Melton has already taken the first steps in that direction. He
announced in March that he had developed 17 new embryonic stem cell lines with private funding and that he would share
those cells freely with other investigators.

Melton's work doubled the number of useful stem cell lines available to researchers and touched off a wave of
excitement in the scientific community. It also drew the interest of the national media, focusing attention on the
difficult political environment surrounding this research.

The debate

Some critics have vocally opposed embryonic stem cell research. Opponents argue that the research is unethical and
ought to be banned because it is performed on cells derived from human embryos. The embryos, just a few days old, are
destroyed during the process of extracting the cells.

Supporters argue that the fertilized eggs used in stem cell research would be discarded by the fertility clinics where
they are stored because they are no longer needed for treatment. Rather than destroying the eggs, supporters argue, it
makes moral and ethical sense to use them for research that could lead to treatments for diseases afflicting millions
of people.

Because of the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research, the institute's ability to attract private funding
may be a determinant in its effectiveness.

Federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells was restricted in August 2001, when President Bush announced that
federal funds would be available only for research on stem cell lines already in existence.

At that time, it was estimated that approximately 60 stem cell lines derived before Aug. 9, 2001 were available
worldwide. Scientists have since discovered that, due to intellectual property concerns, logistics involving lines
located abroad, and problems with viability, only 18 lines are currently available and useful.

Supporters of stem cell research said they are concerned that the government's decision will have a chilling effect on
the field, convincing young, promising researchers to pursue other avenues of inquiry.

Private donors have stepped forward to fill at least part of the financial gap, however. Advocacy groups for the
victims of specific diseases, such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and other private foundations, such as
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, have raised money to finance research. Individuals have also made financial
commitments to support stem cell research.

Howard Heffron, a member of the Harvard Law School Class of 1951, donated $5 million toward the setup of the new
Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Heffron said he wanted to help fill the void left by the federal government. Stem cell
research has promise to help people like his daughter Nancy, who has diabetes, and like his close friend, the late Law
School Dean James Vorenberg, who had Parkinson's disease.

"Knowing these people so intimately, I watched them suffer and deal with the ravages that these diseases bring. I
watched helplessly," Heffron said. "The potential there [for stem cell research] is so great for helping people in this
situation. Here's something to latch onto, to feel like I'm doing something, however indirectly, for these people."

The diseases

The new institute is focused on five disease types for which stem cell therapy seems most promising. The diseases all
result from some sort of organ or tissue failure and include:

diabetes, in which insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed, impairing the body's ability to metabolize
sugar;

neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, which destroys neurons in the brain, and spinal cord injury;

blood diseases, including leukemia, in which abnormal blood cells are produced, and immune diseases such as AIDS;

cardiovascular disease, where heart muscle tissue is destroyed during heart attacks; musculoskeletal diseases, such as
muscular dystrophy.

If it works as planned, the institute would take a leadership position in the field and become a focus for work on the
most important scientific and medical questions. It would also be a place where the critical ethical, legal, and policy
questions will be investigated and debated.

"I would like Harvard to be the place where you come to work on stem cells," Melton said.

Leonard Zon, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital, and
president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said other institutions such as Stanford University have
already organized stem cell efforts, but few have the resources already present at Harvard.

"We have a tremendous intellectual community already existing, and when drawn together I think there will be nobody who
can possibly touch us," Zon said. "I think the stimulation for the entire field will be tremendous."

SOURCE: New-Medical.net, World
http://www.news-medical.net/print_article.asp?print=yes&id=787

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