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Biotechnology

Developing Stem Cells for Drug Discovery

The American Heart Institute estimates that 128 million Americans could be helped today with advances in stem cell therapies. In the U.S., 1.5 million people suffer from Parkinson's disease and there is no long-term treatment for this fatal disease. Embryonic stem cell based therapies hold great promise for new drugs for treatment of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury, ALS, SMA and other devastating diseases. Unstable embryonic stem cells undergoing spontaneous differentiation are not ideal candidates to initiate uniform differentiation towards neural lineages. The goal of scientists in UGA animal and dairy science labs will be accomplished by developing a method of culturing a stable cell line that can be directed homogenously down neural pathways rather than randomly differentiating down lineages that happen to include neural cells. In 2006 the scientists published the first paper on the extend culture of neural stem cells. As a result of this they have obtained grants, one from the National Institute of Health and the other from an industry partner, to develop these cells into drug discovery assays for neurological diseases. First, they have developed the first renewable stem cell population that can be used in developing neural drug discovery and toxicity assays. They are actively collaborating with the Department of Defense to develop neuronal network biosensors for chemical threat detection for homeland defense. In the second grant these same neural stem cells are to be developed for the academic and industry researchers interested in understanding neurological functions in humans. Along with Aruna Biomedical Inc., established in Athens, they are going to start selling these cells via a major distribution provider early in 2007. They will be the first group to sell a product derived from human embryonic stem cells. (2006)

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