Canada scores in California competition with two major stem cell research projects

The Canada-California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP) has produced its first major research collaboration with the announcement of a pair of collaborative projects in the area of cancer stem cell research worth $80 million over four years. The awards were made by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) as part of a major competition that requires each of the 14 research teams to produce an investigational new drug (IND) at the conclusion of their projects.

Canada's participation in the CIRM Disease team Research Awards competition was facilitated by the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium (CSCC), established in 2007 to bring Canada's major funding partners together and establish a mechanism for bilateral collaboration. CIRM will provide $20 million for each of the Canada-California projects while Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) are contributing matching funds provided to them in the 2008 Budget.

The winning projects are co-led by two of Canada's leading stem cell researchers, Drs John Dick and Tak Mak, both of Toronto's University Health Network. Dick's project will see him team with Dr Dennis Carson of the Univ of California San Diego to develop six drugs (three monoclonal antibodies and three small molecules) with the potential to destroy leukemia stem cells. Mak's project in conjunction with Dr Dennis Slamon, Univ of California Los Angeles, aims to develop drugs that destroy cancer stem cells in solid tumors.

It's estimated that 70% of the world's leading scientists in cancer stem cell research are resident in Canada and California making it a natural research area for collaboration.

"One of the project requirements is an IND delivery within four years so they needed to be mature projects," says Dr Morag Park, scientific director of the CIHR's Institute of Cancer Research. "This is very exciting for our Canadian cancer researchers who are leaders in the field. It provides momentum and funding to join with experts in California and drive the projects forward."

Dick is best known as being first in identifying cancer stem cells in leukemia, prompting a change in direction for cancer research. Mak is renowned for his 1984 discovery of cloning the human T-cell receptor and breakthroughs in immunology and understanding cancer at the cellular level.

"It's very important that we pursue this. We missed out on the human genome project because it took so long to get our act together," says Dr Eliot Phillipson, president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and CSCC board member. "If we don't act on this, people will ask why we weren't there at this stage of the enterprise."

The timing of the CIRM competition was fortuitous as CSCC was seeking a competitive process to allow funding to flow. From the beginning, CIRM accommodated the bi-lateral aspirations of Canadian and Californian researchers by agreeing to consider joint applications and funding up to two successful projects. Both projects put forward for consideration passed the rigorous international peer review process.

"The competition was the first real, meaningful deliverable coming out of the CCSIP process," says Drew Lyall, executive director of the Stem Cell Network of Centres of Excellence. "This expands the validation of Canadian stem cell science as an area where collaboration could yield tremendous results ... It's always great when government makes a positive statement around the value of health research and stem cell research."

The CIRM projects specifically exclude equipment infrastructure, with each side expected to provide their own. Lyall says the next step is to determine what the cancer stem cell research community requires and prepare for the next CFI competition (new funding dependent).

"We need to build out some technology platforms and leverage our tumor banks by networking them and then linking to tumor banks in California," says Lyall.

Of the $100 million provided by the federal government for stem cell research, approximately $30 million remains uncommitted. The CSCC is currently considering its next steps.

R$