Tulane University has received a five-year grant totaling $4.3 million to establish a center for the preparation, quality testing and distribution to researchers of adult stem cells. The funding agency is the National Center for Research Resources, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

The new center at Tulane will prepare and distribute to researchers a continuous supply of marrow stromal cells derived from human adult bone marrow and rat bone marrow using standardized protocols. These stem cells will be available to researchers for non-clinical use to explore ways to repair damaged tissues in the body and gene therapy.

ýEach stem cell has the remarkable property to divide and produce a perfect copy of itself,ý says Darwin Prockop, director of the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy. ýStem cells have the ability to develop into a variety of cells that are present in the body, such as a bone, nerve, heart or other type cell, that may repair damaged tissue.ý

ýThis is an extraordinarily exciting day for Tulane, New Orleans, Louisiana and the potential of health care in the future,ý says Paul Whelton, senior vice president for health sciences at Tulane. ýTulane is a worldwide leader in research involving adult stem cells, which we believe will form the basis for major breakthroughs in the treatment of many diseases in the future.ý

The new center will prepare stem cells by the best current procedures for distribution worldwide. The center will derive stem cells from bone marrow from adult volunteers, as well as from bone marrow preparations provided by specific laboratories, and then return cells to those laboratories for use in research programs. The availability of stem cells will allow scientists to explore the capabilities of these cells for potential therapeutic uses by comparing results from standardized cells in many experiments.

ýGene therapy using adult stem cells holds great potential for treating many different diseases,ý Prockop says. ýThis center, with the emphasis on quality control and standardized methods, will move this promising research forward.ý Adult stem cells, which can be induced to develop into specific tissue cells, offer the possibility of a renewable resource of replacement cells to treat diseases such as Alzheimerýs disease, Parkinsonýs disease, osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and osteoarthritis, as well as injuries to the spinal cord, heart and lung, among others.

Prockop and his research team have developed techniques to take a small sample of stem cells from a patientýs bone marrow and grow nearly limitless numbers of the cells in the laboratory.

ýThe new center for stem cell research and production is a shining example of the cooperation, innovation and investment occurring in Louisiana in the areas of biotechnology and life sciences. The state of Louisiana and the academic institutions comprising the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium have developed a research infrastructure and overall environment that is attracting top-level researchers, such as Darwin Prockop, to Louisiana,ý says Steve Moye, director of the state-funded Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium, a cooperative endeavor among institutions of higher education in the state. For more information about the Tulane Center for Gene Therapy, go to: www.genetherapy.tulane.edu and for information on the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health go to: www.ncrr.nih.gov