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Three teams of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers are slated to receive $27 million over seven years in National Heart Lung and Blood
Institute (NHLBI) grants for the development of stem-cell based tools and
treatments to understand and treat cardiovascular and blood disorders. The NHLBI Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium
will consist of nine research hubs, each involving multidiscplinary teams from
two academic medical centers.
Eighteen research groups nationwide are receiving
$170 million under the program, which is one of the largest single infusion ever of
federal funding for stem cell research. Under the Bush administration
federal funding for research involving embryonic stem cells was extremely restricted, and this program is the first major financial result of President Obama’s lifting the Bush era restrictions.
HSCI Principal Faculty member Kenneth Chien, MD, PhD, director of
the Massachusetts General Hospital Cardiovascular Research Center will lead a team working to develop stem-cell-based models of
cardiovascular and blood disorders in collaboration with another HSCI team led
by George Daley, MD, PhD, at Children’s Hospital Boston.
A team led by David Scadden, MD,
HSCI co-director and director of the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine will work with investigators led by Jay Schneider, MD,
PhD, and Eric Olson, MD, PhD, at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, to examine
how the environment in which heart, lung and bone marrow cells develop affects
the fate of progenitor cells. The
HSCI-based teams will receive grants totaling approximately $9 million
dollars each over seven years.
“NHLBI is awarding these grants to
support the research teams in their quest to provide therapies for cardiac,
pulmonary and blood disorders,” said NHLBI Director Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D.
“Important gaps
remain in our understanding of stem and progenitor cells, and their research
holds great promise to expand our knowledge and uncover treatments of great
potential public impact.”
Chien’s team includes groups led by
HSCI co-director Doug Melton, PhD, and Kevin Kit Parker, PhD, of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering; and Sean Wu, MD, PhD, of HSCI and MGH’s Cardiovascular Research Center and HSCI. They will capitalize on the recent
discovery of master cardiac stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells, as both a cardiovascular disease
model and for the development of regenerative therapies for heart failure and
other disorders. As part of this
collaborative program, Daley’s Childrens Hospital team – including groups led
by HSCI Principal Faculty members Stuart Orkin, MD, and Leonard Zon, MD – will develop models of human blood
diseases from inducible pluripotent stem cells.
Scadden’s team will investigate the
role of mesenchymal cells – immature cells that develop into different types of
connective and supportive tissue – in tissue development, with particular
attention to how they interact with hematopoietic, cardiovascular and pulmonary
progenitor cells. Better
understanding of the microenvironment in which cells develop should help move regenerative
medicine from cell-based into tissue-based approaches. The team includes HSCI Principal Faculty members Carla
Kim, PhD, and Amy Wagers, PhD; MGH scientist Charles Lin, PhD, and Todd Golub,
MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute.
“This is a tremendous opportunity
to coordinate with the nation’s leading research groups to hasten the delivery
of stem-cell based medicine. It represents a very welcome sea change in our
government’s investment in this promising area of biotechnology,” said Scadden.
Chien adds, “Over the past decade,
there have been exponential advances in human embryonic stem cell biology; but
until recently, it was difficult to obtain NIH support for this type of work.
This timely and visionary NHLBI program will unlock the scientific and clinical
potential of these fundamental advances towards regenerative therapy for heart
and blood diseases.”
