The miracle stem cell cures made in Britain
British scientists are among the world leaders in stem cell research - and 
their latest discoveries could transform medicine forever

By Richard Gray
Last Updated: 7:30PM BST 27 Apr 2009
 A biological repair kit: stem cell cultures in the laboratory Photo: 
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
We have been told for almost a decade that stem cells are the future of 
medicine: that these tiny clumps of tissue could become a biological "repair 
kit", able to regenerate or heal almost any part of the body. But amid all 
the prophecies of patches for damaged hearts, new nerve cells for spinal 
injuries or stroke victims, and insulin-producing cells for diabetics, few 
people predicted that it would be British-based scientists who would be 
leading the way in mapping out this new terrain.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph last week, Professor Steve Jones bemoaned the 
failure of genetic research to deliver on its promises. Yet no such 
complaint could be made about stem cells, the "prototype" cells that are 
capable of growing into any of the 300 different kinds of cell in the body. 
As they make the leap from the lab to the clinic, new breakthroughs and 
developments are emerging from British universities on an almost weekly 
basis. Scientists, normally hesitant to overstate the significance of any 
work, are starting to talk about a new era of medicine.

Stem cell treatment for most common form of blindness developed by British 
scientists

"The technology has come of age a lot faster than people expected," says 
Professor Pete Coffey of University College London. "We all saw this as a 
technology that had potential for clinical application, but it has gone very 
quickly down that route."

Of all people, Prof Coffey should know. Last week, he signed a deal with one 
of the world's biggest drug companies, Pfizer, to develop a treatment for a 
common cause of blindness. He has shown it is possible to use stem cells to 
halt the damage caused by age-related macular degeneration, a condition 
affecting more than 500,000 Britons, in which the cells that support the 
retina are progressively lost.
It follows other remarkable accomplishments. Researchers at Sheffield 
University last month announced that they had managed to grow the tiny hair 
cells found in the ear, which could one day be used to repair hearing in 
deaf patients. Doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital have also successfully 
grown new corneas for patients blinded in accidents. And researchers from 
Bristol, who were behind the first successful transplant of a human 
windpipe, constructed at the end of 2008, last week announced plans for a 
clinical trial to repair cartilage-based sports injuries.

"The amount of work that is going on is incredibly diverse," says Ben Sykes, 
director of the UK National Stem Cell Network. "It is part of what makes 
Britain one of the world leaders in stem cell research."

It has been a long road to get this far. The study of animal stem cells 
began in this country in the early 1960s, with work at Cambridge University, 
but the problem with humans was that adult stem cells, which are found in 
most tissues in the body, have already started specialising into certain 
cell types. The field did not start to take off until American scientists 
isolated embryonic stem cells, which can be harvested from embryos that are 
just a few days old and coaxed into becoming almost any type of cell.

Realising the potential, Britain became the first country in the world to 
introduce legislation to regulate and support this controversial new field, 
in 2002. While other powerhouses of research, such as the United States, 
found themselves hindered by arguments about the ethics of harvesting stem 
cells from human embryos, Britain ploughed ahead. Not only did funding 
bodies put £40 million into kick-starting laboratory studies, but 
researchers who obtained licences to use human embryos to obtain stem cells 
were required to put the resulting cells into a bank that could be accessed 
by other scientists - a unique, and crucial, innovation that gave poorly 
funded teams easy access to cells.
There are now more than 100 teams working on stem cell research in Britain. 
"The number of groups has expanded pretty rapidly from just a few to large 
numbers of really high-class academics," explains Dr Stephen Minger, 
director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College London. "We 
haven't had the kind of hiccups that our colleagues in the US have had, with 
individual states banning research and a federal ban on funding under the 
Bush administration."

Dr Minger, who came to Britain from Kentucky around 13 years ago, is 
evidence of the benefits Britain has reaped from America's unpredictable and 
sometimes hostile attitude towards stem cells. Prof Coffey's association 
with Pfizer is only the latest example of American organisations and 
individuals funding research in Britain to escape this uncertainty, although 
a recent decision by President Obama to lift the ban on federally funded 
human embryonic stem cell research may change all that.

"I think the risk in the UK is that all of our early gains in getting ahead 
of the game over the past 10 years will fall by the wayside if we don't keep 
putting the money in to exploit those findings," says Professor Anthony 
Hollander, from University of Bristol. "There is a danger the Americans will 
jump ahead of us and utilise our findings, as has happened to so many other 
industries. That would be a tragedy."
Whether the scientists based here will be allowed to translate their 
successes into the clinic will depend on a combination of suitable funding, 
co-operation from the bodies that regulate clinical trials and the support 
of pharmaceutical companies.

But that should not stop us from celebrating the fact that Britain has the 
potential to be at the forefront of something great.

THE BRITISH BREAKTHROUGHS

University College London
Using embryonic stem cells, researchers have been able to grow replacement 
cells to repair tissue destroyed by the most common cause of blindness, 
age-related macular degeneration. Prof Pete Coffey and Pfizer hope to begin 
clinical trials in patients within the year.
Another trial involving heart-attack patients is already under way, using 
stem cells taken from the patient's own bone marrow. Professor John Martin, 
who is leading the research, believes the stem cells can help repair some of 
the damage caused by heart attacks.

University of Bristol
It was announced in November, in a blaze of publicity, that researchers 
including Professor Martin Birchall and Professor Anthony Hollander had 
worked with doctors in Barcelona to create the first organ to be grown from 
stem cells - a windpipe transplanted into Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old 
from Barcelona. Prof Hollander announced last week that he had established a 
new company, Azellon, to create "cellular bandages" from patients' 
bone-marrow stem cells which can be transplanted to repair torn knee 
cartilage. His colleague Dr Raimondo Ascione is also due to start work on 
another clinical trial using stem cells to repair damage caused during heart 
attacks.

University of Edinburgh
The university has a major centre for regenerative medicine, headed by Sir 
Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep. Scientists there 
recently announced that they had found a way to make an almost limitless 
supply of stem cells without using human embryos. Following earlier work by 
Japanese scientists, they "reprogrammed" skin cells from adults, in effect 
winding the clock back so that they behaved like embryonic cells. The 
breakthrough promises to help overcome many of the ethical controversies 
involved in using embryonic stem cells. Researchers are also undertaking a 
major study into finding treatments for multiple sclerosis.

King's College London
One of the most exciting pieces of research - although still at an early 
stage - is a technique to repair damage in the brain caused by strokes, 
after Dr Mike Modo, together with researchers at Nottingham University, 
found that stem cells implanted into the brains of rats formed new brain 
tissue and nerve connections. Dr Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell 
laboratory, also holds one of only three UK licences to work with hybrid 
human-animal embryos, using the animal eggs as a "factory" from which to 
obtain human stem cells.

University of Sheffield
Dr Marcelo Rivolta last month announced that he could treat the damage to 
hair cells and neurons, deep inside the ear, that causes almost 90 per cent 
of hearing loss, by growing new cells and nerves.
Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
Patients who have lost their sight in chemical accidents or through rare 
genetic diseases have had it partially restored thanks to a stem cell 
treatment developed by Dr Julie Daniels and her team. Using stem cells from 
tissue donors, they were able to grow new corneas in the laboratory for 
transplant.

Cambridge University
The stem cell pioneer Professor Austin Smith and his team announced in 
February that they had managed to reprogram adult mouse cells so that they 
behaved in a similar way to embryonic stem cells. This approach had the 
added benefit that it did not involve the potentially harmful viruses used 
by other groups around the world to transfer the new genetic instructions to 
the patient's cells.

Newcastle University
Britain's first hybrid human-animal embryo was created there last year, in 
an effort to develop new stem cell treatments for disorders such as 
Parkinson's and strokes.
Professor Lyle Armstrong led the research team that merged human genetic 
material with an egg from a cow. Other work at the centre has seen Dr Karim 
Nayernia coax bone marrow stem cells into forming sperm stem cells, which 
could help treat male infertility.

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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