STAGE SET FOR WORLD-LEADING STEM CELL RESEARCH CENTRE

25 July 2006

The Wellcome Trust today announces 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 Professor Austin Smith and Professor Fiona Watt, and is due to open at the University of Cambridge in December 2006.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Wolfson Foundation are also contributing £1.5 million each towards the Centre.

Professor Austin Smith is former Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Research at Edinburgh University, where his team made a series of ground-breaking discoveries in stem cell research. He will become Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge.

"Stem cell biology is a young and complex area of basic research with emerging potential for biomedical applications," says Professor Smith. "Historically the United Kingdom has been a world leader in stem cell research. There is now a crucial opportunity to extend this due to the current restrictions on public funding of human embryonic stem cell research in the United States."

Taking the post of Deputy Director at the Centre will be Professor Fiona Watt, who has been Head of the Keratinocyte Laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Centre since 1987. Professor Watt is also Deputy Director of the new Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute. Stem cell biology is an important part of fundamental cancer research, and Professor Watt's joint appointment between the two institutes will strengthen the scientific links between them.

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. Professor Watt's team will investigate how an adult's epidermis (the outer covering of the skin) can be made to produce new hair follicles and glands to lubricate the skin. Her research may also be applicable to stimulating regeneration and production of other specialist cell types, including muscle and brain cells. This would enable the development of therapies using adult stem cell alternatives for numerous diseases and conditions.

"With a shortage of proven talent at the top level in the field, the quality of UK research facilities will prove critical in attracting and retaining elite investigators in the face of global competition," said Dr Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust. "We are pleased to be able to support the University of Cambridge's strategic commitment to this area of research and provide the core support to underpin excellence in stem cell research. This will be coupled with provision of outstanding training for the next generation of stem cell researchers in order to sustain and build up UK and European capacity in this crucial area."

Professor Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge, commented: "The implications of stem cell research for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, as well other debilitating conditions, are enormous. Cambridge has played a significant historic role in the advancement of stem cell research, and the new Centre will provide countless additional opportunities to build upon this tradition of scientific excellence."

The new Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge will be an international centre of excellence in fundamental stem cell research. 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.

Blood stem cells and skin stem cells are already used to treat certain leukaemias and burns respectively. Transplants of other types of stem cells may allow the replacement of diseased or damaged tissues in degenerative conditions such as diabetes or Parkinson's disease. Moreover, scientists believe that as we learn more about the properties of stem cells it may become feasible in some tissues to activate resident stem cells for repair and rejuvenation.

Contact details

Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
E c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
T +44 (0)20 7611 7329

Notes for editors

1. Further information about the Centre and its research programmes (from the University of Cambridge website).

2. The Wellcome Trust is the most diverse biomedical research charity in the world, spending about £450 million every year both in the UK and internationally to support and promote research that will improve the health of humans and animals. The Trust was established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome, and is funded from a private endowment, which is managed with long-term stability and growth in mind.

3. The University of Cambridge's reputation for outstanding academic achievement is known worldwide and reflects the intellectual achievement of its students, as well as world-class original research carried out by the staff of the University and the Colleges. As Cambridge approaches its 800th anniversary in 2009, it is looking to the future. It continues to change in response to the challenges it faces. The modern University is an international centre of teaching and research in a vast range of subjects: about half of the students study science or technology. Members of the University have won over 80 Nobel Prizes.

4. The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK taxpayer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries, and the academic world. The MRC has funded work that has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK. About half of the MRC's expenditure of approximately £500m is invested in its 40 Institutes, Units and Centres. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to individuals and teams in universities and medical schools.

5. The Wolfson Foundation is a charitable foundation set up in 1955. Its aims were stated by the Founder Trustees to be the advancement of science and medicine, health, education, the arts and humanities. These remain the aims of the Trustees today. The annual income available for grants is approximately £37m.

6. Cancer Research UK - together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer. It:

• carries out world-class research to improve understanding of the disease and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer
• ensures that its findings are used to improve the lives of all cancer patients
• helps people to understand cancer, the progress that is being made and the choices each person can make
• works in partnership with others to achieve the greatest impact in the global fight against cancer.