Gates foundation funds stem cell program

$5 million goes to CU, Children's pediatric research

By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:05 a.m., November 30, 2007
Updated 10:17 a.m., November 30, 2007

Ahmad Terry / The Rocky

Robi Shaneman, 12, covers his eyes during a chemotherapy treatment Thursday at Children's Hospital. Robi has adult lymphoma.

Children's Hospital has secured a $5 million gift to allow its new neighbor, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, to expand its stem cell research program to include pediatrics.

The effort is thought to be among the first programs to focus on stem cell research that targets child-related illnesses ranging from diabetes to heart problems.

The Gates Frontiers Fund - created by the children of the late Colorado rubber tycoon and philanthropist Charles C. Gates - provided the gift, which is set to be announced today.

To support the pediatric stem cell effort, Children's Hospital will recruit a physician-scientist who will hold a newly endowed chair.

"We're just beginning the search process," said Stephen Daniels, pediatrician in chief at Children's Hospital at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

Daniels - also chairman of the pediatrics department at the CU School of Medicine - said stem cell-based therapies may provide future treatments for diabetes, neurological diseases, cardiac problems and cystic fibrosis, among other ailments.

He added that pediatric research "holds great promise for improving our ability to treat a wide variety of childhood illnesses" and deformities present at birth.

The new pediatric program also underscores the collaborative effort that CU researchers and physicians at the Anschutz campus hope to achieve.

In 2005, the Gates family made an initial $6 million donation that allowed CU's School of Medicine at the Anschutz campus to create a stem cell program.

Researchers there already target areas that include nerve-related diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, heart disease, liver disease, vascular disease, juvenile diabetes, blood disease, skin disease and cancer.

The medical school's stem cell program is the only formal stem cell program in Colorado, although researchers elsewhere in the state are doing stem cell work. It's named the Charles C. Gates Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology Program.

Diane Gates Wallach, daughter of Charles Gates, said her father was deeply interested in the "medical potential" of stem cell research.

"He said, 'This is great science.' And he wanted to support great science," added Wallach, who previously chaired the Children's Hospital board and is a director of the Gates Frontiers Fund.

The Gates family contributions come amid tight federal funding as well as restrictions imposed by the Bush administration on embryonic stem cell research.

"Most of the interesting work right now is happening with private funding," said Denise Brown, executive director of the Colorado BioScience Association. "The feds are funding so little."

This month, however, researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin announced they had made regular human cells match the healing potential of stem cells. The breakthrough sidesteps the ethical debate over harvesting stem cells from embryos.