£4.5m hub at centre of bid to find new therapies

The hub, involving experts from Sheffield, Loughborough and Cambridge universities, is part of a £25m investment in research and equipment to support the development of regenerative medicine also including cardiovascular disease, wound and musculoskeletal repairs and eye disorders.

The hub will tackle some critical challenges in developing new regenerative treatments from discoveries made in the laboratory.

Prof Peter Andrews, a stem cell biologist from the Centre for Stem Cell Biology at Sheffield University, said: “Human trials for regenerative therapies based on stem cells are now on the horizon for some conditions, including several forms of blindness.

“But we’re still a long way off from being able to produce cell therapies for lots of different disease at an industrial scale.”

The hub will develop processes to translate laboratory-based research into the commercial manufacture of safe and effective products for use in regenerative medicine.

It will aim to lay the initial foundations for increasing the production of therapies from a cottage industry up to a mass scale.

Initially experts will focus on Parkinson’s disease and deafness where efforts to develop cell therapies are already well underway.

Researchers will work closely with commercial companies from the start to ensure that the procedures are commercially viable.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said regenerative medicine had the potential to transform the lives of thousands of people.

He added: “Regenerative medicine has the potential to revolutionise the way in which we deliver therapies for a range of diseases and disorders.

“This new investment will allow our world-class science and research base to explore ways in which new medicines can be manufactured and commercialised.”

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