University of Wisconsin researchers have successfully used human embryonic stem cells to diagnose diseases and predict the effects of certain drugs in the human body.
UW biologist Gabriela Cezar led a team of scientists that reported the use of stem cells to identify chemicals that can be used to predict disease, comparable to how high concentrations of sugar in the blood can forecast heart disease or diabetes.
"We're measuring active metabolites produced by the cells in response to an insult," Cezar said. "These are de facto signatures of what is happening in response to a drug or a disease state."
The research may also pose an alternative to animal testing, which is at times unsafe and can lead to inaccurate results. Grants for this research were granted by the Draper Technology Innovation Fund and UW Graduate School.
Cezar's research developments comes two weeks after James Thomson, a UW biologist and anatomy professor, unveiled research in which human skin cells were reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells.
Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, said Thompson's research is currently in the process of sharing information, and there have been no talks about how to fund further developments.
"There's certainly been discussion about whether these stem cell lines are suitable for distribution by the national stem cell bank — that's the discussion that needs to be done with the [National Institutes of Health]," Gulbrandsen said.
WiCell is a private nonprofit organization where the national stem cell bank is located, Gulbrandsen said. The approved stem cell lines are collected in the bank and distributed under contract to institutions around the world.
The final decision on how to convey these newly developed cell lines will ultimately be made by the U.S. government, which funds most stem cell research.
"This is where the discussion begins. It's talking to the NIH as to whether [WiCell] would be an appropriate vehicle to distribute these top new cell lines to researchers around the globe," he said.
Gulbrandsen said he hopes the money is going to be allocated when the appropriate time comes.
