More on the EU Stem Cell Research Project
More on the EU Stem Cell Research Project
The German website fona reports on the recently funded European Union Tissue Engineering project in more detail than other news sources have. fona’s information comes from CORDIS (Community Research & Development Information Service) and from a press release from the University of Liverpool.
The stem cell project is being lead by the University of Liverpool and the Italian pharmaceutical company Fidia. Tissue Engineering, which is a collection of technologies whose goal is the regeneration of tissues and organs, has included many different components that have not been put together. One of the goals of this project, known as STEPS (Systems Approach to Tissue Engineering Processes and Products), is to “systematically link together all aspects of this multi-disciplinary process by applying the logistics of systems engineering.” According to the fona article, “The technological components will include cell sourcing and manipulation, novel biomaterial development, bioreactor design and the integration of TE constructs into the living host. Moreover, the programme incorporates an analysis of the socio-economic issues related to ethics and health economics. This will include an assessment of the public acceptability of these emerging technologies and the ability of private and public health insurance systems to pay for it.” The research project, in other words, will be considering socio-economic issues as well as technological and scientific issues.
Most of the research will be done on adult stem cells rather than embryonic stem cells, and the goal is to have cost-effective, clinically viable tissue engineering within 4 years.
