Researcher Profile

The Wisconsin Business Journal has published a fairly lengthy article about Dr. Gabriela Cezar, a researcher in stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Cezar is a specialist in developmental biology and is currently doing research on toxicology and fetal developments. It's an interesting read if you want to get more of a sense of who is doing stem cell research and some of the ways they approach it from a personal level.

The Economics of Stem Cells

The Economics of Stem Cells

Stem cells are not just medicine—they are business. (Of course much medicine is business these days; this field is hardly alone.) A few articles have come out today that discuss some of the economic issues related to stem cell research and treatment, so I thought I would give that some space.

To being with, the Korea Times ran an article about the economic consequences for Korea about the Hwang debacle. In the article, Professor Chang Se-Moon from the University of Alabama identifies several economic costs. One of the biggest apparent costs is the cost to the Koran government of about $40 million that was invested in the stem cell research. However, about $30 million was in infrastructure and other facilities that can be used in the future, so it is not a total drain. Another economic cost was the money not received by other scientific communities because it went to the stem cell group instead. There is a cost to private businesses that helped fund the stem cell research and will now not receive a return on their investment. Chang writes that this amount in unknown and may be illegal in some aspects. There are costs to investors who bought stock in Korea’s biotech companies. There are also costs to scientists—both to the researchers who were part of the team and may now lose their jobs and future earnings, and there are costs to non-involved scientists who may lose pay or grants if their research receives extra scrutiny due to the scandal. Chang thinks this latter will, however, likely be insignificant. He ends by writing about the high non-economic costs—the loss of hope and the disappointment suffered by patients who believed Hwang’s promises of a cure.

In California, the Contra Costa Times (Contra Costa is one of the counties in the Bay Area) published a story about a Prop. 71 development: “On Monday, a panel of stem cell leaders endorsed policies designed to ensure that taxpayers receive a share of royalties earned by universities and other nonprofit institutions.” These organizations (as opposed to for-profit biotechs) will also be required to make stem cell therapies available to low-income and uninsured state residents. The proposed policy will be approved by a full panel on February 10. It calls for universities and other non-profits to return 25% of all profits over $500,000 to the state. Enforcement issues are yet to be decided. This is good news, given that for a while it looked like convolutions in federal tax law would prevent the state from issuing tax-exempt bonds if there was royalty sharing. The Sacramento Bee also reported on the story, and it says that the task force also recommended that biotech companies sell any commercialized drugs at the lowest available US commercial price to low-income Californians. The panel also suggested that the researchers seek non-exclusive licenses for their inventions.

Business and Technology Updates

Business and Technology Updates

Today is again a mostly business sort of news day. The Biotechnology Industry Organization has issued a press release about its upcoming April convention in Chicago, which will include 8 panels on the business, science, and regulatory aspects of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The release goes on to describe the panels in specifics. Some of them look pretty interesting (for example, “Stem Cell Research in Europe: How Do Industry and Academia Collaborate? This session will feature leading speakers from the EC health research funding program, research institutes and companies, who will present their initiatives and discuss requirements for supporting stem cell research”), and I hope that proceedings are made available to the public after the convention.

Cytori Therapeutics, which focuses on deriving stem cells from adipose tissue (fat), received the go-ahead from European regulators to sell its stem cell processing device, according to an AP story on MSN Money. The press release from Cytori is on Genetic Engineering News. The device, called the Celution ™ System, can derive stem cells from fat in approximately one hour.

The cord blood bank StemCyte issued a press release saying that it had recently contributed its 250th cord blood stem cell unit for transplant. The company is based in California and provides blood for transplants internationally. The press release focuses on the work they have been doing for patients with thalassemia, a blood disease similar to sickle-cell anemia.