Minnesota invests in regenerative medicine – Health Talk

Last year, the 2014 Minnesota legislative session brought a big win for regenerative medicine, as legislators passed a bill allotting nearly $50 million over 10 years for regenerative medicine research, clinical translation and commercialization efforts.

Some of that research funding has now been awarded to Bruce Walcheck, Ph.D., professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, whose proposal was one of six funded out of 90 applications. Bruce is the principal investigator on a new $500,000 grant for research on engineering human pluripotent stem cells to generate enhanced natural killer cells for cancer therapy. The ultimate goal: treating cancer using the patients immune system.

A unique scientific and medical resource, pluripotent stem cells are self-replicating and have the potential to differentiate into almost any cell in the body. They are an important starting cell population for engineering enhanced immune cells for cell-based therapies that have the potential to cure various types of cancer. The investigative team will generate natural killer cells, which are part of the human bodys first line of defense against cancer cells and virus-infected cells.

Our long-term goal is to engineer human-induced pluripotent stem cells to generate a renewable source of super natural killer cells to enhance current therapies and the patients immune system in killing cancer cells, Walcheckexplained. Natural killer cells play a vital role in the fight against cancer. In contrast to other lymphocytes, natural killer cells kill malignant cells without being restricted to specific antigens or requiring considerable expansion. Standardized natural killer cell-based immunotherapies can therefore be more readily administered to patients.

However, during their expansion for transfer into patients and in the tumor environment, natural killer cells can down-regulate key receptors, resulting in their dysfunction. Our objective is to genetically modify human-induced pluripotent stem cells to derive natural killer cells that maintain their expression of key receptors for enhanced anticancer activity.

The other members of the multidisciplinary investigative team are Dan Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Medical School (coinvestigator); Jianming Wu, D.V.M., Ph.D., associate professor, College of Veterinary Medicine (coinvestigator); Jeffrey Miller, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Medical School (collaborator); Melissa Geller, M.D., associate professor and gynecologic oncologist, Medical School (collaborator); and Paul Haluska, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of oncology, Mayo Clinic (collaborator).

Members of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, are involved in this research.

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Minnesota invests in regenerative medicine - Health Talk