With a $6 million donation – the largest in the medical school’s history – the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center is aiming to create a leading center for stem-cell research, university officials announced Wednesday.
The gift from the Charles C. and June S. Gates Family Fund will create the Charles C. Gates Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology Program.
The program will be led by Dennis Roop, a noted stem-cell researcher from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Roop said he will bring five National Institutes of Health grants with him worth about $3.8 million, as well as 34 researchers.
“We intend to be a leader in stem-cell research nationally,” said Roy Wilson, chancellor of CU-Denver and the health sciences center.
The Gates gift is the cornerstone of that effort, said Dr. Richard Krugman, dean of the medical school.
Charles C. Gates Jr., who died last year at 84, was chairman and chief executive of Gates Corp. and the Gates Rubber Co.
As an engineer fascinated by science, her father was “extremely excited about stem-cell research,” said Diane Gates Wallach, Gates’ daughter and president of the foundation.
The use of human embryonic stems cells has been controversial, and federal funds for such research has been limited.
Roop’s research on skin cancer uses adult stem cells; other research uses stem cells from human umbilical cords and laboratory mice.
In addition to Roop’s work, the new Gates program will bring together CU scientists already working on stem-cell research in such areas as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and neuro science.
Roop will lead a recruiting campaign for additional stem-cell research faculty for the university, Krugman said.
Roop is currently director of Baylor’s Center for Cutaneous Molecular Biology. He will become director of the Gates program in January.
“What we are getting is the formation of a critical mass of stem-cell scientists,” said CU researcher Christopher Hogan.
“That means we can be not only a presence but a force in stem-cell research,” Hogan said
Hogan’s work includes searching for ways to grow additional stem cells after harvesting them from umbilical cords. Umbilical cord stem cells are useful in treating those with cancer, especially blood cancers.
The Gates donation includes $2.5 million for an endowed chair within the program and $1.75 million for research equipment.
The remaining $1.75 million will be part of a “challenge grant” the family hopes will generate other donations.
“This is a great opportunity,” Wallach said. “The business community can get involved; the community as a whole can get involved.”
Roop said the university will continue to work within the federal restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research.
The ban on creating new embryonic stem-cell lines, imposed by President Bush in 2001, “has been detrimental, it has slowed the pace of research,” Roop said.
To get stem cells, embryos must be destroyed, which Bush and others believe is destroying human life.
Roop said he will continue to lobby Congress to expand embryonic stem-cell research.
“What we as scientists need to do is inform the lay public clearly about the possibilities and about what the potential benefit is,” Roop said.
Still, he said, “there is a tremendous amount of work that can be done.”
Roop said he hopes adult stem cells may be useful in treating some cancers.
Experiments on mice with skin cancer have shown that the cancers contain what Roop called cancer stem cells, which are key in the tumor’s growth.
Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy attack the fast-growing cancer cells. But cancer stem cells are few and slow-growing – and may be resistant to current treatments, Roop said.
New therapies that kill tumor stem cells rather than cancer cells could be in use “within a few years,” he said.
Roop said CU had been courting him for five years. It was the Gates donation that made luring Roop possible, Krugman said.
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-820-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
