NIH斥资4820万美元建立祖细胞转化医学研究联盟

  近日，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）宣布，他们将利用4000万美元在未来7年建立国家心肺血液研究所用于祖细胞转化医学领域联盟(PCTC)，同时利用额外820万美元组建协调中心用于管理该研究联盟的宣传和活动；该联盟建立的目的就是帮助开发治疗心血管、肺部及血液疾病的新型疗法。
  NIH的研究者表示，利用病人机体特异性的诱导多能干细胞结合生物工程技术及基因编辑技术，或为开发新型个体化疾病模型及再生医学组织提供帮助；结合多个器官芯片或为药物开发提供一定机会，而先进的3D打印技术同时也可为再生医学研究领域带来希望，包括在生物工程组织和器官中使用血管支架。
  当前NIH最感兴趣的就是利用祖细胞和基因编辑技术来进行病人特异性疾病模型的开发，利用天然或遗传修饰的祖细胞及特殊的细胞疗法和组织工程技术，同时加入外源性的祖细胞就可以帮助进行组织修复及祖细胞的重编程，进而达到治疗疾病的目的。NIH表示，他们将对PCTC进行5项拨款，2016和2017财年为92.4万美元，在2018至2022年间达到每年120万美元。
  协调中心的建立将帮助组织科学会议，管理研究资金的分配及附属的计划，同时该中心还主要负责进行技能培训活动并且开发特殊方法帮助进行PCTC资源和数据的评估分析。最后NIH表示，该协调中心在2016和2017财年还将获得61.6万美元的资助，2018至2022年间每年将获得140万美元支持。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）
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Correction: NIH Earmarks $48.2M for Progenitor Cell Translational Research Consortium

The National Institutes of Health announced that it will commit as much as $40 million over the next seven years to fund the creation of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Progenitor Cell Translational Consortium (PCTC), as well as put up $8.2 million for a coordinating center to manage consortium's activities and outreach.

The consortium's goal, the NIH said, is to translate recent advances in progenitor cell biology, including those made by the NHLBI's Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium and the Lung Repair and Regeneration Consortium, to develop new treatments for cardiovascular, pulmonary, and hematologic diseases. 

"The use of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in combination with bioengineering advances and genome editing offers unique opportunities for developing personalized disease models and tissues for regenerative medicine," the NIH said. "Coupling multiple organ chips together may offer unique opportunities in drug discovery. Advances in 3D printing also offer exciting new opportunities for regenerative medicine, including incorporation of vascular scaffolds into bioengineered tissues and organs."

Projects of particular interest to the NIH include ones focused on continuing development of patient-specific disease models using progenitor cells and genome editing; using natural or genetically modified progenitor cells and their differentiated progeny for cell therapies and tissue engineering; applying endogenous progenitor cells to tissue repair; and reprogramming progenitor cells in vivo to treat disease......