Strategic initiatives
UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP)
MRC, EPSRC and BBSRC have jointly established the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform as a £25m national programme to promote translational research in the field. The UKRMP will be challenge-led in order to address the knowledge gaps and obstacles where more development is needed to underpin the delivery of new therapeutic approaches. This will build on existing excellence in disciplines such as stem cell biology, medical imaging, tissue engineering and manufacturing science, with investment focused in a few research hubs with appropriate critical mass, incentivised to build links to relevant dispersed national activity.
The RMP will operate in close cooperation with the TSB Cell Therapy Catapult Centre, and will provide critical linkage between the discovery science base and efforts to apply this burgeoning knowledge for both patient and commercial benefit, thereby ensuring that the UK operates as a single, globally competitive cluster in this area.
Launched in March 2012, the UKRMP will establish a multidisciplinary and systems-based programme through two phases. The first investments will address generic issues such as safety science (eg. cell stability, tracking, immobilisation), immunomodulation, engineering challenges and technology platforms, while in a second phase more tissue and disease-oriented approaches will be pursued targeting areas such as cell functionality, acellular technologies, delivery systems and screening technologies where a more tailored approach is needed according to the physiological focus.
UK-China Partnership
A UK-China Stem cell partnership development initiative was launched in January 2012 between the MRC and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The jointly funded initiative aims to catalyze the establishment of long term UK-China collaborations in the area of stem cell research and was launched following an MRC-NSFC workshop to explore the potential of UK- China collaborations, details of which can be found at http://bit.ly/oLveYl
A call for proposals has been launched to establish pilot projects between UK and Chinese researchers in the area of preclinical stem cell research as a foundation for longer-term UK-China collaborations. In total, up to £0.4m is available for the UK applicants with RMB 3m available for Chinese applicants, to provide funding for 10-12 partnership project awards of up to 18 months duration. Further information on the initiative and details of how to submit an application is available on the MRC Calls for Proposals page.
Partnership with the Californian Institute of Regenerative Medicine
MRC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Californian Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in October 2008 with the aim of identifying areas of mutual interest where joint working could provide synergy between their respective activities. The first result of this collaboration was the funding of two MRC-CIRM Disease Team Awards in 2009. MRC contributed £5m towards the total investment of £20m in these strategic programmes, which aim to achieve regulatory approval for the clinical testing of stem-cell based therapies within four years. The two programmes address novel approaches to treat age-related macular degeneration and acute myeloid leukaemia, and involve UK teams in UCL and Oxford respectively. See 'International collaborations bring stem cells clinical trials a step closer'.
In 2010, MRC and CIRM held a joint workshop to review progress with human somatic cell nuclear transfer and assess its future role in stem cell research. A report of the workshop, summarising the state of the global research effort in this area, is available in the Publications – reviews and reports section.
International Stem Cell Forum (ISCF)
MRC continues to forge key international collaborations through its chairmanship of the International Stem Cell Forum (ICSF). Established by MRC in 2003, this links the UK to other countries actively engaged in human stem cell research. The membership of the ISCF consists of major funding organisations from Europe, North America, South East Asia, Japan and Australia. A key objective of the ISCF is to harmonise and accelerate stem cell research activity and its application, and to improve global practice in stem cell research. The Forum has developed three workstreams to promote this:
- International Stem Cell Initiative: to compare and characterise human ES cell lines derived from labs around the world;
- International Stem Cell Banking Initiative to identify best practice and establish guidelines for stem cell banking and international co-operation on cell line distribution and regulation;
- Ethics Working Party: to help facilitate international harmonisation of ethical issues relating to use of stem cells in biomedical research
For further information, see www.stem-cell-forum.net
Tools and Technologies for Regenerative Medicine
In 2011, MRC participated as a lead partner, alongside EPSRC, BBSRC and TSB, in a £8m regenerative medicine tools and technologies call (MRC contribution £2.5m). The call sought to support academic-industry consortia addressing key development challenges in the safety and efficacy testing and manufacturing of cell-based regenerative medicine therapeutics. Ten such awards were made with a total value of £6.6m. Further information is available at: http://www.innovateuk.org/_assets/regenmed_results5dec11_final.pdf
Cardiovascular Stem Cell Research
In 2010, the MRC and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) jointly awarded £2.5m to three strategic development grants to build translational capacity in cardiovascular stem cell research. This is intended to provide a platform for more substantive investment in the future in cardiovascular regenerative medicine.
Clinical Grade Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
In 2008, £2.9m was awarded to three derivation centres in London (KCL), Manchester and Sheffield to derive up to 25 new clinical-grade human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. All of these hESC lines will be deposited in the UK Stem Cell Bank and made available to the wider research community to support early phase clinical studies in regenerative medicine, so creating a key resource for further translational research in this area. The first hESC lines from this initiative were deposited in the UK Stem Cell Bank in December 2011.
Stem Cells for Safer Medicine
MRC is a founding partner of Stem Cells for Safer Medicine (SC4SM), a public-private partnership established in 2008 to support the application of stem cell technology in drug development. £3m second phase funding was agreed in 2010 to establish scalable differentiation protocols for the production of functional human hepatocytes from human embryonic stem cells and to validate the emerging toxicology screens towards high through-put utility. For further information see www.sc4sm.org
Contact
Director, UK Regenerative Medicine Platform
Dr Rob Buckle
Email: Robin.Buckle@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Telephone: 0207 395 2240