Media Release: ROSENTHAL TO HEAD REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INSTITUTE

FROM THE MINISTER FOR INNOVATION

DATE: Tuesday, May 8, 2007

ROSENTHAL TO HEAD REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INSTITUTE

The Minister for Innovation, John Brumby, today announced internationally leading molecular biologist, Professor Nadia Rosenthal, has been appointed head of Victoria’s new Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Mr Brumby made the announcement at BIO 2007 in Boston ahead of Professor Rosenthal’s participation in the Victorian Government-sponsored regenerative medicine track of sessions on stem cells.

He said Professor Rosenthal’s husband, Alan Sawyer, had also been appointed to head Victoria’s new Monoclonal Antibody Technologies Facility.

Both facilities are to be based at Monash University, cementing Monash as a centre of Biomedicine in the international medical research community.

“These top-level appointments will augment the leadership status Victoria already has in stem cell and regenerative medicine,” Mr Brumby said.

“Professor Rosenthal is internationally renowned for her work on the use of stem cells in muscle regeneration and heart repair, and Alan Sawyer is widely respected for his groundbreaking work in developing antibodies for basic medical research.

“Regenerative medicine is emerging as one of the most promising areas in medical science making great advances in repairing human tissue and organs by bringing together several scientific fields including stem cell research, molecular biology and tissue engineering.

“These appointments will help take Victoria achieve our goal of becoming a top five global biotechnology destination by 2010 as well as boost our work in regenerative and medical research.”

The couple will take up their appointments in 2008, with Professor Rosenthal initially serving on a part-time basis to establish the Institute and to help build European ties with Monash.

Mr Brumby said Professor Rosenthal was currently head of the mouse biology program at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy and was involved in discovering the insulin gene years ago while at Harvard Medical School.

The $138 million Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute was announced last year as part of the Victorian Government’s $230 million life sciences statement, Healthy Futures with the State Government providing $35 million towards the centre.

“This Institute will enable researchers to develop better treatments faster and apply the promising world of regenerative medicine to many of the diseases associated with an ageing population,” Mr Brumby said.

He said the intellectual property and know-how of the existing EMBL facility would be directly transferred to the Melbourne-based facility, ensuring its world-leader status.

“The European facility has contracts with large global commercial entities, and these will be continued and enhanced from the Monash base,” Mr Brumby said.

“We expect to see a number of standalone companies emerging, particularly in the fields of diagnostics and bio-imaging as a result of technologies developed at the facility.”

Both Monash and the University of Melbourne were recently ranked in the world’s top 20 biomedical universities in The Times Higher Educational Supplement – with Boston and London other cities to have two universities named.

The Victorian Government’s regenerative medicine track of sessions on stem cells, Stem cells: their importance to research and treatment is also sponsored by Invitrogen and will include eight sessions covering issues from legislation, commercialisation and opportunities.

Recent Victorian stem cell developments include:

· The first state in Australia to pass legislative changes to enable allow somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or ‘therapeutic cloning’ research;
· Mesoblast, a Victorian biotech company, is expected to begin Phase II trials in the US in spinal fusion and heart attack patients through its investee company Angioblast Systems Inc. The company is commercialising technology that uses adult stem cells primarily found in blood/bone marrow;
· Living Cell Therapies which is targeting Huntington’s Disease, stroke, type 1 diabetes and haemophilia by implanting healthy cells to replace or repair damaged organs without the use of toxic drugs;
· Norwood Immunology which is looking at ways to strengthen the immune system through the production of new T-cells to rebuild or grow a new thymus from stem cells; and
· The Australian Stem Cell Centre is working with US-based Chemicon to market and distribute Australian stem cell lines and research tools globally.

Biographies

Professor Nadia Rosenthal
Professor Nadia Rosenthal is Head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's Outstation in Monterotondo [Rome], Italy. She moved to EMBL in 2001 from Harvard Medical School, where she directed a biomedical research laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital and served as an editor at the New England Journal of Medicine. Prof Rosenthal is a member of EMBO, and has been awarded the Ferrari-Soave Prize in Cell Biology. She currently holds a Professorship in Cardiovascular Science at Imperial College London and a visiting Professorship at the University of Western Australia.

Alan Sawyer
Alan Sawyer is head of a high-throughput core facility serving EMBL scientists, EMBO Young Investigators Program fellows and external clients including large pharmaceutical concerns.
He serves on a number of scientific advisory and editorial boards. He has two patents pending and one granted for his methods for producing monoclonal antibodies.