Palo Alto Firm Gets Big Boost for Stem Cell Research

A local stem-cell development company harnessed roughly $1 million this month from the federal Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed into law this March.

The Palo Alto-based StemCells, Inc. received $977,917 for projects to develop cell-based therapies for problems related to the central nervous system and the liver. The grant money was part of the "Therapeutic Discovery Project," a program that Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) said in an e-mail would invest in "cost-saving therapies that will support jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness in the realm of medicine."

"I'm pleased that companies in my congressional district and throughout California have already received almost $300 million from this program," she said.

Stem Cells, Inc. plans to eventually market these cells and in 2006 began a clinical trial to test the safety of using them in treating a neurological disease fatal to children. The recent grant funds will help the company pursue other clinical trials.

"The funding was very welcome to the company," said Dr. Stephen Huhn, who heads the Central Nervous System project at StemCells, Inc. and manages related clinical development.

Co-created by Dr. Irving Weissman, a leading stem cell researcher at Stanford University Medical Center, the company was the first to effectively sort out the "purified," or specific, stem cell population that could be used to treat brain, eye and spinal cord diseases and injuries. 

The company began its second trial to gauge the safety and effectiveness of its neural stem cell as treatment this October. It will take place, as did the first, at Oregon Health & Science University's Doernbecher Children's Hospital. Head of the Division of Pediatric Neurological Surgery there, Dr. Nathan Selden, who led the first trial and is leading the current one, was not available to talk about the collaboration with StemCells, Inc.

When the second trial was announced in October, he called the project an "important effort," adding, "Our great hope is that this work will eventually yield significant benefits for patients who suffer from devastating nervous system diseases." 

StemCells, Inc. received four grants in all. Three will fund research on therapies for the central nervous system; the fourth will fund research on liver treatments. The Internal Revenue Service was responsible for implementing these grants and received 5,600 applications for the $1 billion that Congress appropriated for the program.

An IRS spokesman said he couldn't share information about why specific groups were selected for the grants, because of disclosure and privacy laws. 

However, Eshoo spoke to the program's effect on Silicon Valley, in particular: "Silicon Valley companies are exploring the frontiers of medicine in search of the next breakthrough treatment," she said, "and [this program] will expedite their efforts, producing new treatments, lowering costs and saving lives."