Is “regenerative medicine” here and now, or is it still a vision of hope that requires more research, if not further extended clinical studies to achieve its global promise? And how much of an impact does global aging have on the bottom line of companies and governments worldwide?
Scientists and medical experts from various countries debated these issues in Stockholm during the recent 9th annual Swedish-American Life Science Summit Conference, where a broad range of regenerative medical issues and solutions took center seat.
These included the continuing work in developing a novel hormone replacement therapy for Alzheimer’s disease as a preventative for those who are at risk, treatment of tissue damage with Omega-3-based regenerative technologies such as tissue regeneration material derived from fish skin to accelerate healing of wounds and tissue reconstruction, and advanced treatment of various medical diseases and disorders through stem cell therapies that would enable people to take control of their own health at the most basic level – their own cells.
The Life Science conference also addressed the worldwide problem of aging. “It’s a huge economic problem that impacts the bottom line of corporations as well as governments, and every country we can think of,” said Dr. William A. Haseltine, chairman and president of ACCESS Health International, who was a professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health from 1976 to 1992.
“Whether it’s a country like Sweden that deals with health as a state issue, or the United States that deals with it more or less as a private issue, aging is hitting the bottom line and people are upset,” said Dr. Haseltine, who is well known for his pioneering work on cancer, HIV/AIDS, and genomics. He is the founder of the revolutionary Human Genome Sciences that presaged all the work on DNA research. ACCESS Health, which he founded four years ago, is a foundation that supports access to affordable but high quality health services in both the low-income as well as high-income countries.
The older the population, the more healthcare it consumes, says Dr. Haseltine, and that puts a big burden on society and on the global economy. “The question is, what the medical community can contribute on this issue,” he told the conference.
So far, what the medical community has come up with is disappointing, noted several of the conference speakers. “At the moment, the current healthcare system is all about keeping people sick longer, not keeping people healthy,” argued Dr. Brian A. Kennedy, CEO of Buck Institute of Aging, who is internationally known for his research in the basic biology of aging and whose focus is on translating research discoveries into new ways of detecting, preventing and treating age-related conditions. These conditions include Alzheimer’s and Parkinson diseases. Cancer. Stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.
“We have to rethink how we do healthcare, and one of the ways is to extend people’s health span and intervene early on to slow aging and prevent diseases,” said Dr. Kennedy. To develop new approaches to alleviate aging-associated diseases in humans, Dr. Kennedy has been working to move discoveries from simple organism into mammalian animal models as quickly as possible.
In that regard, he has been actively involved in aging research in the Pacific Rim, which has the largest elderly population in the world. Dr. Kennedy, who earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a visiting professor at the Aging Research Institute at Guangdong Medical College in China.
On the large issue of regenerative medicine, Dr. Haseltine warns that it might take many more years – maybe 20 t0 25 years – before the full-blown impact from the umbrella of regenerative therapy comes to fruition. “Some parts of regenerative medicine possibly could be realized earlier than expected,” but it will take a lot more work and time for the whole concept to spread its positive results.
Other scientists who spoke at the conference were far more optimistic. “We are in a voyage of discovery, while the field is in a period of intermezzo, so we need more resources and will power and commitment to make it succeed,” says Dr. Kenneth R. Chien, professor of cadrdiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, where he started a new cardiovascular initiative with a major focus on regenerative cardiology.
Dr. Chien, a pioneer in developing new therapeutic strategies to prevent the onset and progression of heart failure, was previously the Scientific Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a professor at Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.
Indeed, Dr. Chien has been busy in the field of regenerative medicine. Moderna Therapeutics, which he co-founded to develop “messenger RNA therapeutics,” is developing a revolutionary new treatment modality to enable the in vivo production of therapeutic proteins that would stimulate blood vessel growth, repair damaged heart tissue, and improve outcomes in a mouse model of myocardial infarcation.
Moderna’s research, conducted with co-founder D. Derrick Rossie, provides proof of concept that messenger RNA therapeutics provide an effective and robust platform for gene transfer that could be applicable across a number of diseases, says Dr. Chien. “Regeneration of heart tissue through the mobilization of heart progenitor cells holds tremendous potential for the treatment of myocardial infarcation and other forms of heart injury, but has remained an elusive goal for over a decade,” he said.
The ability to stimulate protein production within cells will enable the treatment of many diseases that cannot be addressed today, said Dr. Chien. The current generation of Moderna’s technology is capable of producing 50 times more protein per dose, and “our research team has many new improvements in the making,” he added. In March, Modena formed an exclusive strategic option with
Dr. Karin Hehenberger, chief medical officer and executive vice president at New York-based Coronado Biosciences (CNDO), says “we are now at a new frontier in regenerative medicine, with the ultimate goal of preventing the world’s major diseases from happening, or at least halt the destruction prior to organ dysfunction." She noted that when the organ has been destroyed completely, the only way to return to health through cell therapy, (embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells or xenografts).
However, Dr. Hehenberger said that even in the case of cell therapy, the immune system needs to be kept under control, hence the need for immune therapy throughout the treatment spectrum. In autoimmune diseases, such as MS, RA, and psoriasis, tissues and even organs are attacked and destroyed by the immune system. Dr. Hehenberger was vice president for metabolic strategy and business development at Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) prior to joining Coronado. She was also senior vice president for Strategic Alliances at JDRF, a large disease foundation with the mission of preventing, curing, and better treatment of type-one diabetes. She holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and continued her research as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School's Joslin Diabetes Center.
There are over 100 immune-mediated diseases that affect 50 million Americans, the second highest cause of chronic disease in the U.S. and the No. 1 cause of morbidity in women, Dr. Hehenberger pointed out. But in contrast, most of these immunological and autoimmune diseases are much less common in the less developed countries.
In the field of stem cell research, one active participant is the New York Stem Cell Foundation, whose chief executive officer, Susan L. Solomon, told the Life Science conference that the foundation has used private funds to support stem cell scientists around the world, and to educate the public in order to advance the most cutting-edge stem cell research in its laboratories -- and “to bring us closer to the cures we need.”
An active advocate for regenerative medicine, Solomon serves on the executive committee of Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, and is the founder of the New Yorkers For The Advancement of Medical Research. Solomon also serves on the board of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. “Our foundation from the very beginning recognized that increased communication between the public, clinicians, and the scientific community would be an important tool in improving stem cell research,” said Solomon.
To bridge the gap that exists -- between academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies -- that inhibits the development of new treatments for patients with devastating diseases, “our foundation is advancing programs and creating new technology platforms,” said Solomon. The foundation currently supports more than 100 stem cell scientists around the world in its own laboratory in collaborating research groups and through external grants program.
Plenty of major work and research have been achieved in regenerative medicine, said Barbro C. Ehnbom, chairman and founder of the Swedish-American Life Science Summit Conference, “and the convergence of global scientists and medical experts in Stockholm every year should advance and accelerate even more progress in this field.”
