The New Generation of Medicine

To fill the hole left by a lack of government funding, the University of Minnesota has been tapping into private funds and leveraging partnerships with other institutions. “Stem cell research is very resource and knowledge intensive,” Cerra says. “Recognizing and capturing the benefits requires networks of researchers who share information, have common goals, work to apply new knowledge, and perform clinical research.”

A notably munificent source of funding was William McGuire, chairman and CEO of Minnetonka-based health insurer UnitedHealth Group. In 2003, the William W. McGuire and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation contributed $10 million toward the construction of the $37 million McGuire Translational Research Facility on the Minneapolis campus. A state bonding bill made up the rest. McGuire says that the university “must have the resources to achieve and maintain a world-class medical research and teaching competency, if our nation is to more effectively prevent and treat diseases.” The facility houses a number of researchers, including scientists from the Stem Cell Institute.

Just as the McGuire facility was opening its doors, the U of M also established its partnership with the Catholic University of Leuven. With the creation of the Stem Cell Institute Leuven, the two sister institutes will share expertise, “building on the strengths of each university to really push forward stem cell research,” Verfaillie says. Verfaillie, who remains director of Minnesota’s institute, will assume responsibility as director of Leuven in two years, but will remain involved in research at the University of Minnesota.

The U of M currently boasts more than 500 physicians and researchers from various fields studying stem cells. In addition to Meri Firpo’s work in diabetes, specialists like neuroscientist Walter Low and Doris Taylor, who is director of the university’s Center for Cardiovascular Repair, are exploring how stem cells work in the brain and heart respectively, and how they may be used to repair damaged tissue. Meanwhile, Jeffrey McCullough, director of the university’s Biomedical Engineering Institute, is looking for ways to store and nurture stem cells for new therapies, ensuring that their potency is retained for study and potential treatments. Hematologist Dan Kaufman is investigating whether stem cells can be specifically directed to make more blood cells, potentially boosting the nation’s blood supply for transfusions. And clinician John Wagner is using stem cells found in umbilical cord blood to treat rare genetic disorders.

Yet for all the cures that stem cells promise, nearly everyone agrees that they aren’t yet ready for prime time, clinically or commercially.

Stem Cell ROI

“In terms of commercialization [of stem cells], we’re still way down at the starting gate,” says Michael Moore, director of health technologies at the University of Minnesota’s Patents and Technology Marketing Office. “You won’t know whether [a therapeutic application] is going to work until you get to a certain level of discovery and application to clinical practice.”