The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

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Blood stem cell research to benefit from Stem Cells Australia initiative

 

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute will partner in a newly established $32 million initiative to position Australia as an international hub for stem cell research.

The initiative, Stem Cells Australia (SCA), will fast-track efforts to understand how stem cells are controlled and maintained, and what properties and signals allow them to develop into any cell type in the body.

Stem Cells Australia is a collaboration between the University of Melbourne, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, CSIRO, Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Monash University and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and will be led by Professor Martin Pera.

The Australian Research Council, through the Special Research Initiative in Stem Cell Science, has pledged $21 million to aid the establishment of Stem Cells Australia, with cash and in-kind contributions from all collaborators bringing the total investment to $32 million.

Through Stem Cells Australia, institute director Professor Doug Hilton will co-lead a program researching the molecular control of blood stem cell generation. Other researchers involved in the program are Professor Warren Alexander from the institute’s Cancer and Haematology division and Dr Marnie Blewitt, Dr Carolyn de Graaf, Dr Toby Sargeant, Mr Nick Seidenman and Dr Samir Taoudi from the Molecular Medicine division.

Professor Hilton said the research program being undertaken at the institute would extend understanding of how blood stem cells develop from birth, and explore ways of efficiently reprogramming more differentiated cells to ‘revert’ to blood stem cells.

“Blood stem cells represent one of only a few examples of the successful use of stem cells in medicine to regenerate tissue,” Professor Hilton said. “However their low numbers limit more extensive use. We hope this research program will redress this problem and, through collaboration with some of Australia’s best stem cell researchers, maximise the effectiveness of stem cell applications in regenerative medicine, to the benefit of all Australians.”

The institute’s Molecular Medicine and Cancer and Haematology divisions have a long history of collaborative research into blood cell production and function, with a major focus on stem cells. It forms part of the institute’s wider research focus on cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases and infectious diseases.

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