Stanford Announces New Cancer and Stem Cell Institute

A new institute, called the Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology, that will partner basic and clinical scientists in a unified effort to harness the power of stem cell biology and cancer biology to develop novel treatments for devastating diseases has been announced by Stanford University (Stanford, CA, USA). An anonymous donor has committed US$12 million for the institute.

Research has suggested that in some cancers, such as leukemia, the cancer cells grow and proliferate in much the same way as stem cells, according to Irving Weissman, M.D., a professor in cancer biology and renowned stem cell researcher who will direct the new enterprise. Scientists at the new institute will explore these similarities with the goal of developing powerful new stem cell based therapies to treat cancer.

"What we're doing is examining these two fields that we thought were separate and looking at the overlap that exists between them,” explained Dr. Weissman.

Institute scientists will also work to develop a new series of embryonic stem cell lines that will serve as models for a wide range of genetically related diseases, building on the long-standing history in stem cell and cancer research at the medical center. Dr. Weissman was the first to isolate blood-forming stem cells in mice, in 1988. In 1992, he isolated human blood-forming stem cells and collaborated with other scientists in a clinical trial in which purified stem cells were used effectively to treat women with advanced, metastatic breast cancer.




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