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Runnells Gift Funds ‘Universal Donor’ Stem Cell Research
Houstonians Nancy and Clive Runnells have donated $100,000 to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to develop a “universal donor” stem cell line that could generate a variety of new tissues to treat major diseases and would not be rejected by a patient’s immune system.
Clive Runnells
Runnells’ gift allows scientists Eva Zsigmond, Ph.D., and Rick Wetsel, Ph.D., to develop new embryonic stem cells lines to advance the universal donor project while strictly adhering to federal rules for conducting stem cell research.
“The Runnells gift allows us to proceed on the next step in our research program, which is to test our results from mouse research in human embryonic stem cells. By doing so with private funds, we are able to conduct our research using stem cell lines that will be suitable for use in clinical trials should our early research results be confirmed,” said Wetsel, professor of immunology and director of the laboratory for developmental biology at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).
The private donation permits Wetsel and Zsigmond, assistant professor of molecular medicine and associate director of the laboratory for developmental biology at the IMM, to generate new stem cell lines using fertilized eggs donated to their research from private fertility clinics. These eggs would have otherwise been destroyed if not used for research.
Rick Wetsel, Ph.D., and Eva Zsigmond, Ph.D., are studying stem
cells at the Brown Foundation Institute
of Molecular Medicine
for the Prevention of Human Diseases.
Photo by Ina Fried
Federal and state regulations currently prohibit the use of federal funds to develop new lines of embryonic stem cells. A ruling by President Bush allows research on a limited number of lines developed before Aug. 9, 2001. These federally approved stem cell lines unfortunately are not suitable for clinical use in humans because they were cultivated on a feeder stock comprising animal tissue cells, including mouse embryonic derived cells, which resulted in contamination of the human stem cells. State research funds are not available for embryonic stem cell research.
“Nancy and I were reading a Houston Chronicle story that mentioned Dr. Wetsel’s stem cell research and that he had hit a wall blocking his progress because he did not have access to suitable embryonic stem cells and money for further research,” Clive Runnells said.
“We have a son who broke his back skiing about eight years ago. If a universal donor stem cell could be developed, it might alleviate some of the pain and health problems people have after they’ve broken their back, especially if the stem cells could be used right after the accident,” Runnells said.
“Of course, a universal donor stem cell line could be used for other illnesses and injuries, too,” he said. “We were very interested from the standpoint that this could be a great breakthrough. With neither state nor federal funding available, we saw this as an opportunity to give. We have high hopes for Rick’s and Eva’s research.”
UT Health Science Center President James T. Willerson, M.D., welcomed the Runnells’ gift. “We are deeply grateful to the Runnells family for their support of this important project. Our institution is committed to exploring the potential of all types of stem cells – those from umbilical cord blood and from bone marrow, as well as embryonic cells – to heal major diseases at their root cause. And we are doing so while closely adhering to federal regulations for stem cell research.”
Therapies are years away, but embryonic stem cells are expected to provide new treatments for a variety of diseases because they can differentiate into any type of tissue.
A universal donor stem cell line would reduce the need for one of the most controversial potential uses of stem cell research – therapeutic cloning.
“One of the most promising areas of stem cell research is the potential for generating new tissue to treat diseases caused by the loss of organ-specific cells – heart muscle to treat heart failure, dopamine-producing neurons to treat Parkinson’s disease, insulin-producing beta cells for type 1 diabetes,” Wetsel said. “Scientists already know how to differentiate stem cells into cardiomyocytes and neural cells.
“What we have accomplished in animal models and propose to accomplish in human stem cells is to strip the cells of surface proteins that provoke an immune response,” Wetsel explained. “This would allow generation of reparative tissues that could be used for any patient, because they would not be rejected by the recipient’s immune system.”
IMM Director Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., 1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology, said the Runnells gift provides vital support for existing stem cell research at the institute, even as the IMM looks to greatly expand its stem cell program.
“Rick and Eva are well-known in scientific circles for their great expertise in using stem cell techniques to generate transgenic and “knock-out” mice, which are so important to basic science and disease research,” Murad said. “They are building on their success by moving into a promising area of human stem cell research. Their new, privately funded efforts are an exciting advance for the IMM, the university and the Texas Medical Center as a whole.”
Wetsel and Zsigmond, like Murad, have conducted basic research using federally approved stem cell lines. Murad’s lab explores the role of nitric oxide in stem cell regulation and differentiation.
“Stem cell biology is an important aspect of the IMM’s research program right now and it will only grow in importance,” Murad said. “With the generous support of our New Frontiers Campaign, we will soon complete a new home for the IMM with state of- the-art research facilities. And we are recruiting additional outstanding stem cell scientists – leaders in the field – to join our efforts.”
By Scott Merville, Public Affairs