By Sergey Andreev
“Currently the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering works in two important research-and-development directions. The first is the creation of hi-tech, competitively produced stem cells, which meet international requirements. The second is the organisation of cures using stem cells within the limits of the joint Belarusian-Russian enterprise International Scientific Medical Centre — Cell Technologies,” said Lyudmila Dubovskaya, the Director of the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering of NAS of Belarus.
The purpose of the joint enterprise is the use of Belarusian and Russian cell technologies in medical practice. The Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering of NAS and the 9th City Clinical Hospital of Minsk from the Belarusian side and the EurAsEC Innovative Technology Centre venture company from Russia will take part in the creation of this international centre.
Academician Igor Volotovsky, who is research supervisor of Union State’s Stem Cells programme, noted that the centre will become the executor of Union State’s second programme Regenerative Medicine which will be the continuation of the Stem Cells project. And will allocate about 1 billion Russian Roubles for development.
The current program, Stem Cells, was intended to run between 2011-2013 and includes five activities: the extraction and standardisation of stem cells from marrow and adipose tissue, the study of a stem cells problem related to funic blood, the devising of treatment technologies for peripheral central nervous system diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and oncological diseases. The budget for this has been 120 million Russian Roubles.
The scientists of the Cell Technologies Centre, which was created in February 2010 within the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Engineering, gained valuable experience on reception and accumulation of biomass from stem cells with high viability.
According to Ms. Dubovskaya, the use of pancreatic islet cells cured 10 ‘type 1’ diabetics. Treatment technology of experimental myocardial infarction on animal models with the use of mesenchymal stem cells from marrow is currently undergoing. Also methods of treating trophic ulcers are being developed. In the future, stem cells will be used for cure of other diseases.
As it is known, stem cells are undifferentiated cells which are capable of becoming specialised stems of various tissues of an organism. Their uniqueness is that, under the influence of external factors, they can substitute regional cells, which leads to the regeneration of that local tissue. The manufacture of these cells, and other cell products, is currently led by EU countries and the USA.
