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The Technology Strategy Board and the Welsh Government are to invest up to £8m in single-company and collaborative R&D projects to support the UK’s burgeoning regenerative medicine and cell therapy industry.

The aim is to help advance the industry by addressing sector-specific challenges related to preparing novel treatments for use.

This competition will focus on the preclinical testing, clinical development and manufacture of regenerative medicines and cell therapies, and the development of associated underpinning tools and technologies.

Proposals must be business-led, and can be collaborative or single-company. The expectation is to fund industrial research projects, with a business partner attracting up to 50% public funding for their eligible project costs (60% for SMEs). Projects are expected to last between one and three years, and total project costs to range in size from £500k to £2.5m, although projects outside this range will be considered.

This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 2 June 2014. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 16 July 2014.

A briefing event and webinar for potential applicants will be held in London on 10 June 2014.

For further details please see the TSB website.

A consortium of 26 partners has been formed to establish the “European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells” (EBiSC) with support from the IMI.

The EBiSC iPS cell bank will act as a central stroage and distribution facility for human iPS cells, to be used by researchers across academia and industry in the study of disease and the development of new treatments for them.  Conceptualized and coordinated by Pfizer Ltd in Cambridge, UK and managed by Roslin Cells Ltd in Edinburgh, the EBiSC bank aims to become the European “go to” resource for high quality research grade human iPS cells.

Today, iPS cells are being created in an increasing number of research programmes underway in Europe, but are not being systematically catalogued and distributed at the necessary scale to keep pace with their generation, nor meet future demand.  The €35 million project will support the initial build of a robust, reliable supply chain from the generation of customized cell lines, the specification to internationally accepted criteria and their distribution to any global qualified user, ensuring accessibility to consistent, high quality tools for new medicines development.

Further details can be found on the Roslin Cells website.

A new £3.2 million training centre aimed at keeping the UK at the cutting edge of regenerative medicine research will be based at the University of Leeds.

The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Innovation in Medical and Biological Engineering is expected to bring 50 PhD studentships over five years to the University, allowing researchers to explore new treatments in fields including cardiovascular medicine, joint replacement, skin repair and dentistry.

Professor John Fisher, Director of the University’s Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, which will host the CDT, said: “The centre will train the next generation of researchers in a field that has the potential to change the health care system and people’s quality of life. We will be bringing together the brightest young researchers from a wide range of disciplines in a structured programme to train the specialists the UK needs.”

Further information can be found in the following link here.

The CDT’s website is www.regenerative-medicine.leeds.ac.uk.

Professor Cay Kielty, University of Manchester has been awarded funding for a Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine, which is jointly supported by the EPSRC and MRC.

This forms part of the more than 70 centres to be supported under the £350 million fund  to train over 3,500 postgraduate students in engineering and physical sciences,  to be announced today by Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts.

Further details can be found on the EPSRC  and University of Manchester websites.

The Intention to Apply (I2A) deadline for the Stage II UK Regenerative Medicine Platform – Call for Disease/Systems focussed programmes has now closed.  The I2A which have been received and are aligned with the remit of the call and its strategic interests are listed below (alphabetically by Principal Investigator surname, followed by the research organisation and title of the proposed application).

In order to facilitate engagement with other stakeholders/end users such as biopharma/small-medium enterprises who might wish to explore opportunities to engage collaboratively with one or more of the proposals ahead of the final submission, the full 2 page I2A for all applicants can be found [here –  bookmarked within the single PDF file].  Should collaborative interactions wished to be pursued please contact the respective PI directly.
 

Dr Sajjad Ahmad, University of Liverpool
The development and delivery of cellular therapies for corneal blindness.

Professor Charles Archer, Swansea University
Generating durable and resilient repair of cartilage defects – a systematic, therapeutic approach.

Professor Andy Carr, University of Oxford
A woven and electrospun polydioxanone scaffold to orchestrate endogenous soft tissue regeneration.

Professor Peter Clegg, University of Liverpool,
Development of evidence–based guidelines for non-invasive monitoring of regenerative approaches for osteochondral repair – Determining efficacy of repair and preventing osteoarthritis.

Professor Pete Coffey, University College London
Scalable production of retinal pigment epithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cell under GMP conditions for cellular replacement therapy of the dry form of age-related macular degeneration.

Dr Richard Day, University College London,
Muscle regeneration using progenitor cells and tips microspheres.

Professor Lucy Di-Silvio, Kings College London
3D custom scaffolds for hard and soft tissue repair.

Professor Stuart Forbes, University of Edinburgh
The development of 3-dimentional implantable liver organoids.

Dr Cedric Ghevaert, University of Cambridge
Creating an artificial GMP-compliant niche and its application in 3D manufacturing processes for cost effective production of blood products.

Dr Christine Le Maitre, Sheffield Hallam University
Safety and efficacy testing of a novel system for regeneration of the intervertebral disc.

Professor Sheila MacNeil, University of Sheffield
Regenerative medicine for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

Dr Rudi Marquez, University of Glasgow
Tissue Regeneration within Diabetes (use of a small synthetic, “drug-like”, mimetic of IGD peptide (BDP-1)).

Professor Andrew McCaskie, University of Cambridge
SMART STEP – Stepwise translational pathway for smart material cell therapy.

Dr Richard Nicholas, Imperial College London
Randomised placebo controlled trial of allogenic mesenchymal stem cells in optic neuritis.

Professor Stuart Ralston, University of Edinburgh
Using biomechanical unloading to understanding and manipulate the regenerative stem niche in advanced osteoarthritis.

Professor James Richardson, Keele University
Injectable cell therapies for orthopaedic repair (ICOR): a clinical/scientific feedback loop for defining the best approaches.

Professor Salmeron-Sanchez, University of Glasgow
Synergistic microenvironments for non-union bone defects.

Professor James Shaw, Newcastle University
Targeting inflammation – the limiting factor for pancreatic beta-cell therapy.

Professor Bing Song, Cardiff University
Optimising multidisciplinary stem cells replacement therapy in spinal cord injury repair.

Professor Phil Stephens, Cardiff University
Immunological manipulation to maximise regenerative therapies in osteoarthritis.

Professor Alan Stitt, Queens University Belfast,
Developing vascular stem cell therapy for diabetic retinopathy.

Professor Tonia Vincent, University of Oxford,
Enhancing intrinsic repair of articular cartilage in osteoarthritis.

Dr Ana Williams, University of Edinburgh
Exploration of intrinsic and extrinsic variables in myelination by human oligodendrocytes from patients with benign or severe MS.

Three UK Research Councils are to invest £25m in research and equipment to support the development of regenerative medicine therapies for a range of applications, including Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease, wound and musculoskeletal repair, eye disorders and deafness.

£4.5m will set up a new ‘Hub’ for pluripotent stem cell research as part of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP), funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council (MRC). The Hub will work with the other strands of the UKRMP to tackle some of the critical challenges in developing new regenerative treatments from discoveries made in the lab.

A further £20m of capital funding from the MRC will provide state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to support the work of the UKRMP and the wider regenerative medicine research community.

Pluripotent stem cell hub

At the moment, experimental regenerative therapies involve the use of relatively small numbers of cells, usually prepared by laboratory researchers. To be able to treat the thousands of patients who could benefit from regenerative medicine, scientists ultimately need to be able to scale-up these efforts to reliably and repeatedly manufacture thousands of millions of cells under uniform and controlled conditions.

The aim of the Hub is to lay the initial foundations for scaling up the production of cell-based therapies from a ‘cottage industry’ to an industrial scale. It will develop a set of protocols for manufacturing cell therapies that meet the requirements of doctors, regulators and industry and tackle key challenges such as:

• Making sure cells do not undergo unwanted genetic changes or become contaminated with external agents that may change the way they work.

• Improving differentiation so that scientists can reliably turn ‘blank’ (pluripotent) cells into the type of cell they want, when they want.

• Ensuring the right quality control systems are in place so that manufactured cell therapies are safe and suitable for use in human treatments.

Initially they will focus on two disease areas – Parkinson’s disease and deafness – where efforts to develop cell therapies are already well underway. The researchers will work closely with commercial companies from the start to ensure that the procedures they develop are commercially viable.

The Hub will be led by the Universities of Sheffield, Loughborough and Cambridge and builds on existing capabilities within MRC and EPSRC Centres and the UK Stem Cell Bank. It will also collaborate with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Babraham Institute and will complement the work of the existing UKRMP research Hubs.

Professor Peter Andrews, a stem cell biologist from the Centre for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Sheffield, who will lead the Hub, 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 pluripotency hub brings together for the first time in the UK, researchers with the range of expertise necessary to develop the processes needed to take these cells from laboratory-based research to the commercial manufacture of safe, effective and reproducible products for use in regenerative medicine.”

Regenerative medicine capital funding

The £20m of capital funding from the MRC will support 12 projects at UK research institutions, many of which are linked to the existing UKRMP hubs. Example awards include:

• A new £10m laboratory facility, co-funded by the University of Edinburgh, located at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine. Here scientists will develop an artificial system to simulate the environment that surrounds stem cells in developing organs in the body, called the ‘niche’. The artificial niches will allow researchers to grow stem cells in a more controlled way and turn them into functioning cells that could be used to repair damaged tissue. The new UKRMP Centre for the Computational and Chemical Biology of the Niche will function as a ‘research hotel’, available to all UK regenerative medicine researchers at minimal cost to support the rapid development of innovative new regenerative therapies for patients.

• Funding for a state-of-the-art ‘cell sorter’ at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. In recent years the UCL team has developed a pipeline of candidate cell therapies to treat a range of eye disorders including glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. This equipment will allow them to identify rapidly the cells they need from a given cell population, providing an important resource to help them move into human trials.

• Microscopic imaging equipment that will allow an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of Southampton to study and observe the 3D architecture of healthy human tissues at a nanometre scale. This will allow them to create accurate artificial scaffolds for growing replacement parts from stem cells for tissues such as cartilage and bone.

• A 3D printer and other equipment to allow scientists from Imperial College London, Nottingham University and other members of the UKRMP Acellular Hub to develop prototype biomaterials (such as scaffolds) for use in regeneration of human tissues. Potential applications of these 3D ‘smart materials’ include Parkinson’s disease, wound regeneration, cartilage repair, treatments of oesophageal cancer and anterior cruciate (knee) ligament operations.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said:

“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. As one of the eight great technologies and a key part of our life sciences strategy, we believe regenerative medicine has the potential to transform the lives of thousands of patients.”

Dr Rob Buckle, Director of the UKRMP and Head of Regenerative Medicine at the MRC, said:

“Today’s investment through the UKRMP will help us to realise the potential of regenerative medicine to deliver new treatments for patients, while the capital support will provide additional cutting-edge technical capability in this area, helping to develop interdisciplinary programmes that will maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in the field.”

Also launched today is the latest RCUK timeline, which highlight how investments made in research over the long-term combine to create a significant impact in particular areas. A lab-grown ‘beef’ burger produced from muscle stem cells, artificial liver cells using umbilical cord blood stem cells, and light-sensitive photoreceptors used to restore vision are just some of the ground-breaking discoveries in regenerative medicine of the last 50 years showcased in the timeline.

Further information

Images and interviews with Peter Andrews and leaders of the capital bids available on request. Please contact:

Hannah Isom

Medical Research Council press office

T: 0207 395 2345 (out of hours: 07818 428 297)

E: press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

At its core, the first stage of funding supports interdisciplinary and complementary Research Hubs that together will provide a world-leading programme to promote the development of regenerative therapies by addressing key translational gaps.

To complement the recently established Hubs, the RC sponsors are inviting proposals to establish a high quality, collaborative research grouping that can assemble the capability needed to address key immune challenges in translational regenerative medicine, focussed on harnessing immunomodulatory approaches. Up to £2M is available for the successful bid.

This is a revised call from that advertised in September 2012, with a broader remit informed by an Immunology/Stem Cell Workshop  held on the 5^th July 2013.

For further details please see the UKRMP Call for Proposals website: www.ukrmp.org.uk

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) are establishing a £25M UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP) to address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating promising scientific discoveries in this area towards clinical impact.

At its core, the first stage of funding supports interdisciplinary and complementary research hubs that together will provide a world-leading programme to promote the development of regenerative therapies by addressing key translational gaps. With the successful establishment of this Platform, up to £6.5M is now available to support second stage funding for the UKRMP to build on this initial investment in order to address specific human health needs.

The RC sponsors, in partnership with Arthritis Research UK and the Multiple Sclerosis Society are therefore inviting proposals to establish high quality, collaborative research groupings to address key challenges in translational regenerative medicine focussed into particular diseases or physiological/organ systems with therapeutic potential. Up to £6.5M is available to support 4-5 successful bids.

Applications across all health areas are welcome, with the exception of cardiovascular disease. Proposals addressing arthritis and related musculoskeletal conditions/rheumatology and multiple sclerosis are particularly encouraged, reflecting the key partnership with Arthritis Research UK and the MS Society in this call.

For further details please see the UKRMP Call for Proposals website: www.ukrmp.org.uk

Ahead of the launch of a revised call for proposals to establish an immunology-focused UKRMP Hub, the Research Council Sponsors of the UKRMP hosted a workshop to scope the immunological challenges to be addressed in regenerative medicine, bringing together 41 delegates from across the UK immunology and stem cell research communities.

The workshop identified a number of key areas of intersection between immunology and regenerative medicine where there were opportunities for the two communities to work together to overcome immunological challenges which currently limit regenerative medicine approaches. It was recognized that a broad and interdisciplinary approach was needed, establishing a networked community combining the expertise of immunologists and stem cell/regenerative medicine biologists. Connectivity to the other UKRMP Research Hubs as well as partnership with bioindustry was seen as essential to making real progress towards realizing the benefits that regenerative medicine approaches could bring to human health.

Dr Rob Buckle, Director of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, said: ‘Ensuring the considerable strengths in UK immunology and transplantation research are engaged with the translational agenda in regenerative medicine is a key objective for the UKRMP, and the productive discussions at the workshop will hopefully have laid a foundation for this to happen. The proposed establishment of a new Research Hub with a focus on generating novel tools and technologies to help manage the immune response to transplanted of cells, tissues or biomaterials should have significant impact  for the UK effort in this area, and further enhance the programmes of activity already established through the UKRMP’

A full copy of the workshop report, slide presentations and list of delegates can be found here.

Further information on the call for a UKRMP Immunomodulatory Hub and details of how to submit an application are available on the UKRMP Calls for Proposals page.

The House of Lords Science & Technology Committee today reports the findings of its inquiry into UK regenerative medicine. The inquiry was set up in July 2012 to examine what the UK is doing well in regenerative medicine and any barriers to its future development. The Research Councils submitted both written and oral evidence to the inquiry.

Commenting on the report, Dr Rob Buckle, Head of Regenerative Medicine at the Medical Research Council and Director of the cross-Council UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, said:

“The Research Councils welcome the Lords’ report, which clearly acknowledges the potential for regenerative medicine to deliver enormous health and economic benefits for the UK.

“It’s encouraging that the report recognises the strength of the UK research base and infrastructure that has been assembled through joint Research Council and Government investment in recent years. It also rightly highlights the challenges ahead in moving this emerging knowledge towards clinical application and commercialisation, and ensuring the UK remains globally competitive.

“The coordination established through cross-Council Strategy for UK Regenerative Medicine and creation of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform has established momentum that will help address many of the issues raised, notably in the area of translating knowledge towards clinical application and providing technical and methodological advances to support clinical trials and the future growth of manufacturing capability in line with the emerging needs of the field.

“The Research Councils look forward to continuing their close working with other stakeholders such as the Technology Strategy Board’s Cell Therapy Catapult, National Institute for Health Research, the commercial sector and regulatory agencies to promote the advancement of regenerative medicine in the UK.”

Further information

1.    A copy of the House of Lords’ Science & Technology Committee Regenerative Medicine report is available here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldsctech/23/23.pdf

2.    A UK Strategy for UK Regenerative Medicine, published in April 2012 by BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC and the Technology Strategy Board, sets out clear objectives and a delivery plan focussed on translating our increased biological understanding into clinical impacts that will benefit both patients and the UK economy. A copy of the strategy can be downloaded here: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Utilities/Documentrecord/index.htm?d=MRC008534.

3.    The UK Regenerative Medicine Platform is a £25m investment from BBSRC, EPSRC and the MRC which was established to address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating promising scientific discoveries in this area towards clinical impact. http://www.ukrmp.org.uk/

 4.    Research Councils UK (RCUK) is the strategic partnership of the UK’s seven Research Councils who annually invest around £3 billion in research. We support excellent research, as judged by peer review, that has an impact on the growth, prosperity and wellbeing of the UK. To maintain the UK’s global research position we offer a diverse range of funding opportunities, foster international collaborations and provide access to the best facilities and infrastructure around the world. We also support the training and career development of researchers and work with them to inspire young people and engage the wider public with research. To maximise the impact of research on economic growth and societal wellbeing we work in partnership with other research funders including the Technology Strategy Board, the UK Higher Education funding bodies, business, government, and charitable organisations. www.rcuk.ac.uk.

5.    The seven UK Research Councils are:

• • Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC);
  • Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC);
  • Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC);
  • Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC);
  • Medical Research Council (MRC);
  • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC);
  • Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC).