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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 [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn