Monday, November 08, 2004
Stem cell research poised for growth
Company based at Harbor-UCLA is ready to apply for Prop. 71 funding
to support the promising studies.
By Lee Peterson
Daily Breeze

Thanks to California voters, Ken Trevett expects to be devoting a lot
more of his time to recruiting research scientists.

As president and CEO of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute
near Torrance, Trevett said the passage of the stem cell research
funding Proposition 71 is going to give centers like his the chance
to greatly expand into a field that some say could revolutionize
medicine.



While research into stem cells figures to better explain the body's
most complex functions and malfunctions -- like cancer and birth
defects -- the big hope is that stem cells could be coaxed to replace
damage wrought by heart disease, lung disease and Parkinson's
disease, for example.

LA Biomed, on the campus of County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center,
already delves into such a wide array of research, it will be able to
start taking on new stem cell projects as soon as funding becomes
available, Trevett said.

"The opportunity to take advantage of these kinds of funds is not one
we will pass up," Trevett said.

Trevett has long spoken of raising the region's profile as a center
for the biomedical research industry and all the economic benefits
that brings.

Whether it is locally or for the entire state, Proposition 71 is
something that can help make that happen.

"I think this probably is going to really make California
unquestionably a leader in a promising area of research and that has
some very exciting economic potential too," Trevett said.

By 40 days after Tuesday's election, an oversight committee will be
appointed by various academic and government officials. By Day 45,
the group will have its first meeting, and start to put together the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a new state agency
which will award up to $3 billion -- capped at $350 million a year --
of grants and loans for stem cell research throughout the state.

In contrast, the National Institutes of Health dedicated $180 million
for stem cell research for the entire country in 2002.

For California scientists, the new agency can't get started soon
enough.

Dr. Larry Kedes, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at
USC, said he's already been asked by several colleagues where they
should write to about the grants.

There's great interest in the funding because in recent years the
Bush administration has greatly restricted the disbursement of NIH
funds for projects involving embryonic stem cells aside from a
limited number of hard-to-obtain cell lines. Proposition 71 funds
have no such limitations.

Targeting heart disease

Kedes' field of interest involves using stem cells to repair heart
tissue damaged by a heart attack. In tests involving rabbits,
researchers have shown beneficial effects.

Getting that to work in human hearts would be a major step, Kedes
said, and one that, while years away, is closer at hand than using
stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries or to rebuild damaged eyes,
for example.

While help for diabetics is also relatively farther down the road, it
figures to be a very active area of research.

LA Biomed is part of a regionwide network of centers studying the use
of transplanted pancreas islet cells to reduce diabetics' dependence
on insulin.

However, the study is limited because the islet cells must come from
dead donors. If embryonic stem cells could be developed into islet
cells, it would provide an ample supply.

Scientists aren't the only ones encouraged by the passage of
Proposition 71.

Scott Manlief of Rancho Palos Verdes was diagnosed almost three years
ago with Parkinson's disease, a progressive nervous system malady
that causes tremors and imbalance.

The retired TRW physicist takes medication to quell the tremors and
he still plays golf, but he definitely notices the symptoms of his
Parkinson's -- lack of muscle coordination and balance -- and does
not look forward to the disease worsening.

Hope for Parkinson's sufferers

But he did look forward to the passage of Proposition 71, and along
with fellow Parkinson's sufferer, actor Michael J. Fox, hopes to see
scientists working with stem cells to find a way to reverse the
course of the disease.

"It's considered to be one of the primary candidates for therapy,"
said Manlief, 68. "It's entirely possible that it might come along in
time that I could benefit from it."

At LA Biomed, Dr. John Torday, a professor of pediatrics and
obstetrics-gynecology, has already been researching adult bone marrow
stem cells as a possible treatment for chronic lung disease,
particularly in pre-term newborns, who face a 40 percent to 70
percent chance of the disease.

With Proposition 71 funds, that research could be moved to the front
burner, in terms of scope and priority.

In a more global sense, the measure could help stave off a "brain
drain" that has sent stem cell researchers in recent years to places
like England, Australia and Singapore, Torday said. He hopes it will
bring those scientists to California instead