The New Generation of Medicine

Because of this, investors have generally been cautious about betting on commercialization of stem cell research. Still, Moore believes that stem cell research does offer a strong business opportunity. “The concept of regenerative medicine has been a very hot area for business development for the last several years, both in terms of the research aspect at places like the University of Minnesota, as well as companies who desire to commercialize the stem cell itself,” Moore observes. “The business prospects are bright, but they are high-risk investments.”

Researcher Taylor believes that, from a business point of view, the potential of stem cell research tends to be “overestimated in the short term, but underestimated in the long term.” In the area of heart research, “there’s not a device company out there that is not looking at [stem cell research],” she says. But she stresses that cell-based therapies aren’t short-term ventures. “Investors will not be able to turn their money around in five years, because this is biology [based], not device based,” Taylor says. “The questions we’re addressing are brand new. That’s going to require time. But in the long term, I believe this will change the way we treat cardiovascular disease.”

Some businesses have taken the plunge. Athersys, a Cleveland-based biopharmaceutical company, hopes that its investment in University of Minnesota stem cell research will someday reap benefits. Athersys bought exclusive rights to develop commercial applications of Verfaillie’s breakthrough discovery in adult stem cells; it is now conducting research and development in St. Paul to support that work. Moore says Athersys was chosen as the university’s commercial partner because its “complementary technology in identifying genes and proteins” was a good fit in developing stem cells’ potential uses.

And one local company believes that it has a stem cell with market potential. BioE, a small biotech company located in Vadnais Heights, recently announced that it has discovered a stem cell derived from umbilical cord blood that has the flexible properties of embryonic stem cells. What makes the “Multi-Lineage Progenitor Cell” unique, says BioE President and CEO Michael Haider, are its ability to develop into a wide range of tissues and the ease with which it can be duplicated. The cell is currently being tested by researchers at the University of Minnesota, the National Institutes of Health, and other institutions.

“Our cells provide scientists with a new tool for research,” Haider asserts. For instance, he says, they could allow scientists to test the toxicology of drug compounds. BioE has cloned and stockpiled millions of its cell and has started selling them to researchers around the world.

At the university’s Biomedical Engineering Institute, McCullough sees commercial potential in what might be called ancillary items—products for collection, production, and storage of stem cells. “It’s unlikely that industry is going to make billions of dollars finding a special cell,” he says. “In blood banking, companies were successful in manufacturing the plastic bags that we use to collect the blood; they didn’t invent the blood, but they developed all the devices that we use to collect and store the cells and make them available for patients. I think it’s the same situation with stem cells.” A company may not figure out how to make a cell turn into a nerve cell to cure paraplegics, for instance, but it could develop chemicals and equipment that can allow scientists to do this.