Sanford Health of Sioux Falls, South Dakota plans to partner with a California firm to develop a cure for Type 1 diabetes. The plan involves use of embryonic stem cells, which is illegal in South Dakota.
Fred Levine, director of the Sanford Children's Health Research Center at Burnham in La Jolla, Calif., has research experience beta cell transplantation, taking beta cells from donors and transplanting them into patients with diabetes. That research has involved both embryonic and adult stem cells.
The Argus Leader reports:
Sanford Health's effort to become a national research leader soon might take a large step forward, but to do so the health system would bypass a state ban on a controversial method of research.A new donation from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford will give Sanford Health greater access to embryonic stem cell research, a process that the system's chief executive, Kelby Krabbenhoft, has expressed an interest in pursuing.
It's also a process that is illegal in South Dakota.
T. Denny Sanford says he will help the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine come up with matching funds for a planned $115 million stem cell research center in La Jolla, Calif. Sanford hasn't said how much he plans to give. The donation has not been formally announced. But the San Diego Union-Tribune reported this month that an "out-of-state philanthropist," whom the consortium has declined to identify, has pledged $30 million, with $10 million paid up-front and the remainder in $2 million annual installments.The consortium is made up of the Burnham Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute and the University of California-San Diego.
The Burnham Institute is a major research partner of Sanford Health, which announced its intention this month to cure Type 1 diabetes within the lifetime of T. Denny Sanford.Sanford Health chief executive Krabbenhoft said he won't rule out stem cell research. The California connections might offer capabilities that aren't available here in South Dakota, he said.
Read it all here.
No comments:
Post a Comment