U member of national stem cell research consortium

The University of Minnesota is one of 18 research groups to participate in a $170 million study of stem and progenitor cells, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute announced Wednesday.

The institute is funding the seven-year study to learn more about basic cell biology and to design better cell therapies, Denis Buxton, the consortium’s lead project professor, said.

The study will focus on challenges in cell transplantation, and characterizing progenitor cell lines, which are the “most primitive offspring,” of stem cells, Dr. Daniel Garry, principal investigator for the study at the University’s of Minnesota, said.

Five professors from the University’s Lillehei Heart Institute and the Stem Cell Institute will participate in the study, and will work closely with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their “hub” will study the signals and regulating factors that direct stem cells to heart and blood cells and blood vessels, Garry said.

The University’s research will focus on three phases, including improving heart function in large animal studies, how genes regulate stem cells to become heart or blood cells, and the scaffold of tissues called the extracellular matrix, Garry said.

Other schools in the study include Stanford, Harvard and Johns Hopkins, Garry said.

“It’s pretty good company to keep,” he said.

The schools had to submit their ideas for smaller grants through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, before being selected for the consortium in an “unusually complicated,” process Buxton said.

The University’s group of researchers came together from across the stem cell and cardiovascular departments to apply for the grant, Dr. Dan Kaufman, a study member and professor at the Stem Cell Institute, said.

The study will use stem cells, embryonic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells, which are

“taking your skin cell and reprogramming it to become a stem cell,” Garry said. The pluripotent cells have “enormous potential” for better understanding diseases, Buxton said.

The collaborative group will meet annually in the late summer or early fall for the next seven years, and every three months members will discuss research in a conference call, Dr. Michael Terrin, director of the consortium’s administrative coordinating center, said.