Research lab in N.O. to make big strides in stem cell research

NEW ORLEANS - A?local research lab has landed a big contract that helps brand the image of New?Orleans as a biotech center of excellence.

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This not only means business for the city, but could also mean local?scientists will play a role in the treatment of some?incurable illnesses.

In the labs at?Tulane, scientists have been at work for years, growing and studying adult stem cells, those cells from your bone marrow that can go anywhere in the body and repair any type of tissue damage. With the help of federal funding, this was the only center than produced a special kind of adult stem cell that researchers used for laboratory studies worldwide.

And now a new announcement puts New?Orleans on the map as a place open for biotech business. The special lab in?Tulane's Tidewater Building on Canal Street just got a contract from?California based company,?Repair Technologies, Inc.?to grow the kind of adult stem cells that can be put back into people to treat illness.

"There have been studies done in humans that have heart attacks, where they have been given nearly identical cells to the ones that we worked on. Everyone that has suffered damage to their heart tissue, if they are given these cells, almost every patient has gotten better. The few that haven't gotten better, have not gotten any worse," said Dr.?Bruce Bunnell,?a professor of?Pharmacology and director of?the Center for Gene?Therapy at the?Tulane School of Medicine.

What is so special about these stem cells? It appears they can be shared by people.

"So the current thinking is,?is that you could make a what we call a cell bank, where you could take maybe just a couple of donors and generate thousands of vials of cells and use them to treat thousands of patients,?explained Dr. Bunnell.

Well, this is huge. There is no rejection.

"Yes, correct," he said.

And they seem to be beneficial with auto immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, muscular dystrophy, type one diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

"We actually have data in our laboratory, in mouse models of?MS, where?these cells, when administered to mice with?MS,?the mice with MS almost reverted back to normal," added Dr. Bunnell.

The?Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium says this opens doors.

"Once you land that first contract, that establishes credibility so that the rest of the biopharmaceutical world, the other companies out there who are looking to have their stem cells produced, they say 'Where can we get them produced now.' Tidewater Facility can say 'Look, we got it under our belt,'" said Steve Moye, president and CEO of The Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium.

And that will mean high tech jobs in the future. The special adult stem cells can also become bone, tendons and cartilage which could also treat people with orthopedic injuries.