The Promise of Stem Cells
First Taubman Institute Symposium explores new frontiers in research
U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, Ph.D.
The first annual A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute Symposium promised to be an exciting, informative event – focusing on a very timely and crucial issue: stem cell research.
The near-capacity crowd that jammed the BSRB Auditorium on October 7 expected that. What it didn’t expect was Alfred Taubman’s announcement at the beginning of the afternoon program.
He broke the news that he was making a bequest of $22 million in additional funding to the Institute to carry on its research. “It is my most sincere hope that this gift will speed up the day that we find cures for people facing devastating disease,” he said.
With that good news in hand, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, Ph.D., introduced the theme of the afternoon: “New frontiers in Stem Cell Therapies(Taubman Symposium video).”
“The potential of stem cells to help us better understand human biology and how disease affects our bodies is at this point limitless,” said President Coleman.
A Matter of Urgency
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Dr. James F. Battey, Jr., vice chair of the National Institutes of Health Stem Cell Task Force.
The topic couldn’t have been timelier: Less than one month later, Michigan voters approved Proposal 2, a ballot initiative to allow Michigan to join 45 other states who are able to use embryos from fertility clinics to conduct potentially life-saving research. Those embryos would otherwise be destroyed.
It was a huge breakthrough for medical research at the University of Michigan and throughout the state.
The importance of this new field of inquiry was made eminently clear by the Symposium’s keynote speaker, Dr. James F. Battey, Jr., vice chair of the National Institutes of Health Stem Cell Task Force.
His lecture addressed both the challenges of conducting embryonic stem cell research and the great opportunity it holds for the future.
“What is the promise of stem cell research?” Dr. Battey asked. “I believe the real answer to this question is: We don’t know.
“I think if you turn the clock forward three decades you will see some remarkable things that are done as a consequence of studying these cells that nobody in this audience or any other audience could possibly predict today. That’s just the way the research engine goes.”
Unlocking the Power of Stem Cells
Max Wicha, M.D., discusses the connection between stem cells and cancer which could lead to a possible cure.
Earlier in the program, three Taubman Scholars – leading U-M medical scientists who receive funding from the Institute – offered a look at the unique ways they were approaching stem cell research in their laboratories:
- Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Taubman Institute, explained her use of human neural stem cells in the treatment of ALS.
- Max Wicha, M.D., director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed his groundbreaking work with cancer stem cells, the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel its growth.
- Dr. Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D., described his efforts to understand the causes of hearing and balance loss and develop new treatments for them.
Together, Dr. Battey and the Taubman Scholars provided an idea of the scope and the promise of this new tool for medical discovery.
“I think they drove home the point that stem cell research takes many forms and offers many opportunities,” said Alfred Taubman, in bringing the session to a close. “It truly represents the future of medical science – a new pathway to cures that we are just beginning to explore.”
