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Funding: STAGE SET FOR WORLD-LEADING STEM CELL RESEARCH CENTRE25 July 2006 |
The Wellcome Trust has announced today funding of £10 million to establish an international centre of excellence in fundamental stem cell research. The Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research will be led by world-renowned stem cell researchers Professors Austin Smith and Fiona Watt, and is due to open at the University of Cambridge in December 2006.
The Medical Research Council and the Wolfson Foundation are also contributing £1.5m each towards the Centre.
Stem cells are rare cells that have the capacities to multiply themselves and to produce other, more specialised, cell types. Study of stem cells can improve our understanding of how the human body develops and maintains itself, and of how certain diseases arise. Research in this area offers great potential for future medical treatments.
The Centre will focus on the definition of the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that control how stem cells develop into particular types of cell. This will provide foundations for engineering of stem cells to model particular diseases, drug discovery and regenerative medicine.
In addition to providing £7m over five years for core facilities and a dedicated four year PhD programme in stem cell biology, the Wellcome Trust has awarded a £3m grant to Professor Watt to explore how adult stem cells can be used to develop better skin grafts.
See also
- Press release (full details)