Media Releases

Stem cell network and commercialization centre position Toronto at the forefront of regenerative medicine

June 16, 2011

TORONTO, ON — In 1961, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s own Jim Till and Ernest McCul­loch (MD 4T8) broke ground when they pub­lished evi­dence prov­ing the exis­tence of stem cells in sci­en­tif­ic jour­nal Radi­a­tion Research. Fifty years lat­er, U of T proved it is once again ahead of the curve by host­ing the  launch of two major stem cell and regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine ini­tia­tives: the Ontario Stem Cell Ini­tia­tive (OSCI), and the Cen­tre for Com­mer­cial­iza­tion of Regen­er­a­tive Med­i­cine (CCRM).

Over four hun­dred peo­ple packed the MacLeod Audi­to­ri­um for the announce­ments on the evening of Tues­day, June 14. Dr. Michael May, CEO of CCRM, and Janet Rossant, Direc­tor of OSRI, acknowl­edged and thanked the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment, indus­try part­ners, and the research com­mu­ni­ty that helped in the devel­op­ment of the projects. The cre­ation of the CCRM was made pos­si­ble by the award of $15 mil­lion from the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da’s as part of its Cen­tres of Excel­lence for Com­mer­cial­iza­tion and Research (CECR) com­pe­ti­tion. OSCI received infra­struc­ture grants of $25 mil­lion from the Cana­di­an Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion (CFI) and the Ontario Research Fund (ORF).

Both orga­ni­za­tions promise to enhance and sup­port work in stem cell and regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine research with­in Ontario. Pro­fes­sor Peter Zand­stra, of the Insti­tute of Bio­ma­te­ri­als & Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing (IBBME) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, CCRM Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer, and OSCI Orga­niz­ing Com­mit­tee Mem­ber was proud and hon­oured by the role U of T played in both cre­at­ing both projects, stat­ing in an inter­view that “CCRM is built on the fun­da­men­tal strengths in bio­engi­neer­ing and stem cell biol­o­gy long sup­port­ed by the IBBME and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and its teach­ing hos­pi­tals. We are very excit­ed to work with inter­est­ed regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine researchers in Ontario to help them devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize their inno­v­a­tive dis­cov­er­ies.”

Stem cells and regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine-based ther­a­pies have the poten­tial to alle­vi­ate suf­fer­ing caused by some of the most debil­i­tat­ing dis­eases in the world by bridg­ing the gap between researchers and indus­try to ensure that inno­va­tions get from the labs to the hos­pi­tals. These efforts require strong part­ner­ships between researchers and indus­try, and Dr. May empha­sized the efforts towards a true  “cul­ture of col­lab­o­ra­tion.”

“We need to learn to rec­on­cile tech­nol­o­gy push, where the research com­mu­ni­ty in Toron­to excels, with mar­ket pull,” not­ed Dr. May. “And we need to ensure that our researchers are being sup­port­ed.” CCRM works with a con­sor­tium of six­teen com­pa­nies that will be the recip­i­ents of research-dri­ven tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing cells, reagents, med­ical devices, and ther­a­peu­tics.

The part­ner­ship between OSCI researchers and CCRM will be key in build­ing towards break­throughs in RM, and trans­lat­ing these inno­va­tions into viable ther­a­pies. “We will be work­ing togeth­er to take Ontario to the next lev­el of health,” Rossant stat­ed in her speech.

The Ontario Stem Cell Ini­tia­tive is a “vir­tu­al” net­work of six­ty-five stem cell sci­en­tists in Ontario and rep­re­sents an expan­sion of the Toron­to Stem Cell Ini­tia­tive. “The infra­struc­ture is built,” con­tin­ued Rossant. She went on to note OSCI’s month­ly sem­i­nars that fea­ture live­ly debate and keep the ‘vir­tu­al’ net­work human. The first three OSCI-spon­sored post­doc­tor­al fel­lows were also pre­sent­ed at the event.

After the launch, atten­dees enjoyed talks on cut­ting-edge research from Dr. Fred Gage, The Salk Insti­tute, Dr. Hideyu­ki Okano, Keio Uni­ver­si­ty, and Peter Zand­stra, and a poster ses­sion.

 

Per­ma­nent link to sto­ry:

http://ibbme.utoronto.ca/news/IBBME_in_the_News/Stem_cell_network_and_commercialization_centre_position_Toronto_at_the_forefront_of_regenerative_medicine.htm

 

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Sachiko Muraka­mi, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer
Insti­tute of Bio­ma­te­ri­als and Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing (IBBME)
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Phone: 416–978-4801
Fax: 416–978-4317
comm.ibbme@utoronto.ca
http://www.ibbme.utoronto.ca