Explore Tulane Center for Gene Therapy & Darwin Prockop

[Astronuc]

I heard an interview with Darwin Prockop from Tulane's Center for Gene Therapy. It was very interesting, especially the discussion about cells which function to repair damaged cells. The interview may be available next week. Meanwhile -

The major aim of the Center is to develop new therapies for a series of common diseases that include osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, parkinsonism, spinal cord injury, stroke and Alzheimer's disease. The primary strategy of the Center is to use adult stem cells that can easily be obtained from a patient and then used for therapy of the same patient. The Center will also provide educational programs for career development, job training and life long learning of citizens; establish a forum to evaluate the social, legal and ethical implications of gene therapy; and develop commercial applications of gene therapy with an emphasis on commercial developments within the State of Louisiana. The Center is supported by research funds from the federal government via National Institutes of Health grants, from the state of Louisiana via the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium and the Louisiana Board of Regents, from the Tulane University Health Sciences Center, the HCA - Healthcare Company and several private foundations. The Center is a major participant in the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium that includes gene therapy centers at the LSU Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and in Shreveport. The Center was launched with a staff of 15 who moved with Dr. Prockop from Philadelphia. It now has a staff of over 30 with plans to increase the staff to about 50 within the next year or two. The Center is housed in 14,000 sq. ft. of modern laboratory space in the Tulane University Health Sciences Center's J. Bennett Johnston Building, located at 1324 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Tulane Center for Gene Therapy is under the directorship of Darwin J. Prockop, MD, PhD. Dr. Prockop has a distinguished career and his pioneering research is recognized throughout the world. He has been honored by his peers in many ways, including election to the National Academy of Science, two honorary degrees, and the Lee C. Howley Prize of the Arthritis Foundation for research on arthritis.

The therapies being developed by the Center are based on the discoveries largely made by Dr. Prockop and his associates that adult stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow can be gene engineered and then potentially used in the same patient to target the genes of the central nervous system, the bones, cartilage and many other tissues. The Center staff is doing research both on the basic biology of adult stem cells and developing procedures for use of the cells in patients with devastating diseases.

Stem Cells

Characterization of the biological properties of adult stromal cells is essential for a better understanding of their normal function in adults as well as to revealing their potential in treating disease. Stem cells are so named because they are like the stems on a tree that can produce new leaves and flowers each year. Each stem cells has the remarkable property that is can divide so as to produce a perfect copy of itself together with a second cell that can become a "workhorse" cell of the body such as a bone cell or a nerve cell. Because the stem cell produced by the division is a perfect copy of the original stem cell, stem cells seem to be able to divide and live indefinitely, perhaps forever. Understanding stem cells is now one of the most important problems of biology. The Center staff is working at the forefront of research on stem cells using cutting edge technologies to define them in terms of the genes they express. Also, they have developed new procedures that make it possible to begin with a small sample of stem cells from a patient's bone marrow and grow extremely large numbers of the cells in the laboratory. The ability to grow the cells rapidly, in turn, makes it possible to gene engineer the cells with simple techniques that do not involve use of a virus.

Fascinating stuff!

Faculty - http://www.genetherapy.tulane.edu/faculty.shtml

Prockop's CV - http://www.genetherapy.tulane.edu/pdf/DJP_CV_081505.pdf (61 pages, over 500 publications!)

 

[Astronuc]

Stem Cells & Diabetes - Progress

Each year in the United States, more than 100,000 people are diagnosed with kidney failure...and the most common cause of kidney failure is complications from diabetes. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and conducted by researchers at Tulane University, human stem cells not only repaired insulin-producing cells in diabetic mice, they also fixed cells in damaged kidneys. The great hope is that stem cells might one day pack this one-two punch when it comes to treating people with diabetes. The Health Show's Jim Horne spoke with Dr Darwin J Prockop the study's senior author and director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He says that the stem cell story, thus far, has not been an unqualified success. There is more than one type of stem cell...and the category that has caused the most controversy - embryonic stem cells - is also the one causing the most problems for researchers...

http://www.healthshow.org/archive/week_2007_09_02.shtml#2304 (MP3 download of show available on page.

Real Audio - http://healthshow.org/audio/1014/1014b.smil

Prockop talks about various types of stem cells. First discovered in the 1970's, they were recognized by different names: fibroblastoid colony forming units, marrow stromal cells (a hemotological name), mesenchymal stem cells, and now multi-potent stromal cells. Embryonic stem cells are easy to differentiate into different cell types, which makes them so attractive.

Stromal cell form the basis of potential new therapies, e.g. -
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/46/17438

 

[scorpa]

Thanks for those links Astronuc they are quite interesting. I'll have to take a closer look at them when I get home tonight. The one about stem cells and diabetes sounds promising, it will be cool to see how far they get with that.