Hope for Healing: Columbia’s Stem Cell Initiative by Roy Q. Abrams Fall 2002, the Neurological Institute of New York Newsletter of the Association of Alumni, a CUHS Development Communications publication Every few decades a scientific enterprise captures the imagination of the public and the interest of government and industry. Proponents launch a campaign to marshal public and private resources in a collective effort to bring it to fruition, whether it is the eradication of polio or the landing of a lunar module. Now backers of stem cell research are hoping to add to the annals of scientific ventures. Their aim is to use stem cells to grow previously irreplaceable tissues lost to trauma or disease. “The state of stem cell research right now is one of high optimism. I would not be surprised if, in five years time, we had an approach to recovery from neurodegenerative diseases and spinal cord injury in animal models. That would have been thought hopeless ten years ago,” says Dr. Thomas M. Jessell, a renowned neuroscientist who is helping spearhead Columbia’s stem cell project. The generous contributions of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Fund and the Charles and Jean Brunie Foundation and other anticipated gifts are helping Columbia University overcome the financial obstacles to this research. Columbia University, long renowned for cutting-edge science, is poised to lead the way forward in this quest by bringing research efforts under one roof. The principal challenge to researchers is learning how to get stem cells to differentiate into particular classes of neural cells. Whether trying to cure stroke, Parkinson’s Disease or ALS, scientists must learn to identify and manipulate the mechanisms by which neural stem cells become the specific types of neurons that have been lost or damaged. Investigators are also seeking to determine whether research into embryonic stem cells in mice is applicable to humans, and whether stem cells found in the organs of adults are plastic enough to give rise to other types of cells. “There is no point in doing this research in a Balkanized way or in isolation,” remarks Dr. Jessell. “There is an economy in bringing these lines of research together.” As a first step, Columbia will assemble a group of four investigators all working on aspects of neural stem cell biology. A search committee has been formed to recruit two first rank stem cell biologists to join other scientists already at Columbia. It is proposed that the Center for stem cell research will be located in the geographic heart of the Health Sciences Campus to facilitate a free exchange of ideas between clinicians who are treating diseases and their colleagues who are doing basic research on the mechanisms of stem cell biology. The stem cell project can be likened to the war on cancer, which over time has yielded intervention and treatments never believed possible. At the same time, Dr. Jessell stresses the importance of moving swiftly to harness the potential benefits of stem cell science without succumbing to irrational exuberance about how soon it will yield answers to these most pressing problems. “The insurmountable barriers aren’t so insurmountable any more,” says Dr. Jessell. As President Kennedy believed, sometimes reaching for the moon is rewarded with success.