Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to collaborate with New York Stem Cell Foundation

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) are establishing a collaborative program to advance the development and use of stem cells in therapies for a wide range of diseases, the organizations announced today. The program will train researchers to use stem cells and foster joint research projects.

"We are exceptionally proud to partner with the New York Stem Cell Foundation," says Chi V. Dang, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and vice dean for research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This is a great opportunity to cross fertilize two rich research programs and develop new and lasting efforts to further stem cell research."

The joint program includes the establishment of workshops in state-of-the-art stem cell technologies for Johns Hopkins students, fellows and faculty at the NYSCF laboratories in New York City, one of the few places in the nation offering comprehensive expertise in stem cell derivation and maintenance. An inaugural three-day workshop took place in February.

The collaboration also is expected to yield production of standardized and quality-controlled human pluripotent stem cell lines by the NYSCF staff for use in Parkinson's disease and other disorders. Johns Hopkins researchers will provide research samples and the NYSCF stem cell derivation team will grow more cells from them, as well as reprogram, characterize and maintain quality control of the cells. The cell lines created will be banked in the NYSCF repository and will eventually serve as a resource for other researchers.

The collaboration establishes an NYSCF Fellowship Award to enable a Johns Hopkins stem cell researcher to pursue projects with researchers outside of Johns Hopkins.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to work with this world-class group of researchers to use stem cells to cure the terrible diseases that affect us all," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation.  "We look forward to a very long, active and productive relationship between our two institutions."

Institute for Cell Engineering: http://www.hopkins-ice.org/index.html
Stem Cell Research at Johns Hopkins:  http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/stem_cell_research/