“Every lab I saw during a recent visit to China had hugely expensive, state-of-the-art equipment and was buzzing with young scientists. Many of those scientists had been educated in the United States.” -Stephen Minger - U.S. Stem Cell Scientist
A 21st-century gold rush is under way in California, as researchers at universities and companies mine stem cells that contain the allure of cures.
The tiny cells are the building blocks of the human body, whether in utero or stored in the fat, tissue and blood of adults.
One day, scientists hope, stem cells will yield a wealth of treatments - such as regrowing a missing limb or reversing heart disease - all derived from the elements that make us who we are.
While the federal government has imposed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research because of ethical concerns, California will spend $3 billion on embryonic stem-cell research to compete in the global industry. Though the bulk of the money is tied up in litigation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in July agreed to have the state lend the program $150 million until the suit is resolved.
But the research is expensive. And scientists caution that any revolutionary treatments are years away. Still, it's hard to contain the exuberance over a field that could one day yield fortune for sick patients and investors alike.
LifeStem is banking on the discoveries of the future by harvesting adult stem cells that could be unfrozen if treatments someday become available. Novocell is developing embryonic stem-cell lines to seek a cure for diabetes, with a treatment now being tested in animals. And PrimeCell Therapeutics says it has developed a way to transform adult germ stem cells into embryonic-like cells that can morph and multiply. All three companies are in Irvine.
BANKING ON BREAKTHROUGHS
ven non-research companies are getting into the business. Clients at Solana MedSpas soon will be offered more than hair plucking and wrinkle removing. LifeStem has teamed up with the health/beauty industry to harvest adult stem cells.
James DeOlden, chief executive of CalbaTech, which owns LifeStem, said the service is not unlike the umbilical-cord blood storage for newborns, which runs about $1,500.
Though he adds for that service, "It's not really a good demographic because most people just bought a house, just got married, just had a kid."
But med spa clients, DeOlden said, fit a different category. They value health and wellness and can afford $3,500 for removal of three vials of blood and fat cells pulled from the abdomen. The stem cells are then removed and frozen at a lab for $200 per year.
"You bank them now because your cells are healthy," DeOlden said. "You don't want to be in a position where you have a disease and there's a therapy available and you don't have healthy cells."
It's the ultimate life insurance policy, says John Buckingham, founder and chief executive of Solana, which has locations in San Clemente, Rancho Santa Margarita and Yorba Linda.
Some stem-cell experts disagree, saying the cells will always be available in the body - if and when disease strikes, and if and when there is a cure.
"It would be the ultimate life insurance if there was actually a guaranteed payoff," said Philip Schwartz, a neural stem-cell researcher at Children's Hospital Orange County. "If I have my fat harvested today and next week I have a spinal cord injury, I don't get anything."
SEEKING TO CURE DIABETES
Over the past few years, Novocell has received $33.5 million in grants and venture capital for its work in developing a treatment for diabetes. The company is focused on growing embryonic stem cells to replace islets in the pancreas, which regulate glucose.
Alan Lewis, the company's president and chief executive, said the company has created insulin-producing cells from embryonic stem cells. They are now being tested in rodents to control diabetes.
"It's pretty cool to be able to create these cells from scratch from start to finish," Lewis said. "We've been able to replicate the creation of a human pancreas, if you will, in a dish."
Novocell has already tested a coating that would keep the body from rejecting foreign cells. Islets, which are clusters of cells destroyed by Type I diabetes, have been taken from cadavers and used to treat diabetes in apes and monkeys.
"We think we can cure diabetes," Lewis said. "If it works the way we anticipate, it's going to be a transforming treatment."
The company also has a prominent researcher, Melissa Carpenter, who has worked in the embryonic stem-cell industry since the field was established about a decade ago.
Diabetes groups are keeping a close eye on the company. Over the summer, the company presented an update at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Washington.
"We are supportive of the commercial sector participating in this area and are keeping an eye on companies like Novocell," said Dr. Richard Insel, executive vice president of research for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. "We are excited by the progress Novocell has made."
If the company can develop a treatment for market, Lewis expects it would be 2013 at the earliest.
"Novocell sounds like the right play," said Christopher Scott, executive director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics Program on Stem Cells and Society.
"The fact that they're (testing with) primates is a good sign. That shows a financial commitment. Many companies launch right into humans on the basis of mouse data."
A PERSONAL INVESTMENT
PrimeCell claims to have reconfigured adult germ cells, which govern reproduction, into cells that can reproduce into any other kind. Such a discovery sidesteps the ethical concerns of embryonic research while overcoming the limitations of adult stem cells, which don't have the capacity to develop into different kinds of cells.
"If you could fully control the human germ line, you come away from any ethical issues. You literally have the holy grail," said Francisco Silva, vice president of research and development. "The other cells you have in your body, they're aged according to your age, except the germ cells.
"The cells, which normally would have been developed into sperm, we've converted into cardiac and brain cells."
Those claims have yet to be substantiated by independent peer review.
"One of the difficulties for the scientific community in terms of judging what PrimeCell has (done) is that they have not published it," said biologist Peter Donovan, co-director of the UCI Stem Cell Research Institute.
Once the work is published, the methodologies can then be examined and judged, Donovan said.
Silva said the study has been accepted for peer review by the journal Nature. The magazine would not comment on submissions.
Schwartz, the CHOC researcher, said he had heard of the company's claim but is waiting to see if the findings are published.
"If you've got something in the stem-cell field that is going to have a big impact, which this would, then Nature should pick it up," he said. "The fact that it's taking so long indicates the reviewers have found some problems with the research that may be something they can solve by doing some additional studies. We have no idea."
The company, started in 2002, is all privately funded and has spent $10 million so far. The primary investor is Thomas Yuen, who along with his 20-year-old daughter suffers from nephritis, a kidney inflammation.
"My intention is to look for an alternative method to deal with current untreatable diseases," Yuen said. "My case is a kidney disease, but it could be any disease that is difficult to heal or cure."
CONTACT US: Register staff writer Yolanda Sanchez contributed to this report. 714-796-3686 or
