“In the research laboratory, you work with very small numbers
of
cells, testing what the cells will do in little plastic trays or
culture
flasks,” McCullough notes. “But if you want to have
enough
cells to
treat
somebody with a
damaged spinal
cord or heart,
for instance,
you’ll
need a
million
times more
cells. You
can’t use a
million of
these little
trays.
You
have to have
some other kind of
device to do
this, and such devices don’t
exist.
So part of my
interest is,
as these
things
start to develop,
what sorts of
technologies
or
devices or
processes are we
going to
have
to have in
order to
make this into a
product
that can
actually be used in a patient?”
While there’s still a long road before stem cells generate
product,
the University of Minnesota has funding and facilities necessary to
push research toward commercialization. The state has funded
the
Minnesota
Partnership for Biotechnology and
Medical
Genomics between
the University of
Minnesota
and the Mayo
Clinic, in part to
support
stem cell research.
Although
the
financial
support is not at the same
level
as California’s initiative,
the
university’s
Paller
still
believes it
will be useful.
“Will we make major gains from it? Yes,” he says. “Are we far better off with it? Absolutely. We’re frugal and very creative, and so I think we’ll go a very long way with the partnership. Nevertheless, even with this support, recruitment [of researchers] remains a real challenge for us.”
But there have been recruitment successes. One of the most recent is Firpo, who came to the University of Minnesota from California last year, in part because of funding for research, in part because of the broad range of expertise and research at the U of M, and in part because of the overall strength of medical research and clinical application in Minnesota.
“Other programs may have a good diabetes-developmental-biology aspect, while others focus on diabetes treatment,” Firpo says. “But it’s rare to find a place that offers both basic science and a wide range of clinical programs. It’s a perfect fit for me here.”
Now that she’s here, can a Minnesota firm specializing in diabetes treatment be far behind?
