Research

Researchers at Lund University already have a strong international position in two major areas of somatic stem cell and cell therapy research, i.e. neural cell replacement therapies for CNS disorders, and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) biology and gene therapy. The sections of Neurobiology (Professor Anders Björklund) and Restorative Neurology (Professor Olle Lindvall) have an internationally leading position in CNS disease models and experimental cell therapy, and have been pioneers in developing cell replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease. In the hematopoietic field, the medical faculty has over the last years made key recruitments and considerable investments in HSC research by establishing new Departments of Stem Cell Biology (Professor Sten E Jacobsen) and Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy (Professor Stefan Karlsson). These two departments have jointly established one of the largest and strongest research programs in Europe on fundamental aspects of HSC and HSC transplantation biology, regulation of hematopoietic development, as well as development of gene therapy for HSC, coupled to a clinical HSC transplantation program (Professor Gunnar Juliusson).

These well-established clinical-experimental interactions form the basis for the new Stem Cell Center (SCC) established at the Biomedical Center in Lund (Figure). The SCC consists of three parts located under one roof, the new Stem Cell Institute focusing on studies of fundamental aspects of stem cell and developmental biology, Preclinical Research focusing on development of cell replacement therapies using animal disease and transplantation models, and Clinical Research consisting of clinical research units for HSC transplantation, neural cell replacement, and stem cell based gene therapy.

Stem Cell Institute (SCI)
Located in new facilities on B10, in direct continuity with the Preclinical Research on A10-A12 and the Clinical Research (Figure), the SCI currently consists of five research groups (Figure).

The Hematopoietic Stem Cell Lab (Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen) focuses on molecular regulation of stem cell fate decisions and lineage development in the hematopoietic system, as well as transformation within the hematopoietic stem and progenitor compartments.

The Neural Stem Cell Lab ( Zaal Kokaia) is devoted towards the isolation and charaterization of human and murine neural stem cells (NSC), identifying mechanisms regulating their differentiation, as well as development of transplantation strategies for functional restoration after brain insults.

The Non-Mammalian Development Biology Lab (Udo Häcker; located on B13) studies cell fate determination in Drosophila, in particular novel factors regulating the WNT signaling pathway.

The Stem Cell Functional Genomics Lab (Åke Borg) characterizes breast cancer susceptibility genes, studies breast cancer cell biology by microarray-based analysis of genomic alterations and gene expression profiles in breast tumors, and runs the new cDNA microarray lab for gene expression profiling of stem cells.

In the Computational Biology (Carsten Peterson) the transcriptional machinery of commitment processes is being mapped out for selected cell lines and mouse models based upon gene expression measurements with novel data mining techniques and dynamical modeling of intracellular signaling pathways.

An additional 4-5 new group leaders will be recruited to the new SCI within the coming 1-2 years, to complement the existing expertise at the SCC. Examples of such areas include functional genomics, developmental biology, cancer stem cell biology, non-mammalian model systems and signal transduction.

Preclinical Research
The Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy Lab (Stefan Karlsson) develops gene therapy for hematopoietic cells, particularly hematopoietic stem cells, and studies the genetic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells in novel animal models.

The Neurogenesis and Cell Therapy Lab (Olle Lindvall) studies neurogenesis, cell transplantation and neuroprotection in models of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and stroke.

The Focus of the Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Lab (Anders Björklund) is on characterization and development of NSC for cell transplantation in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases.

Clinical Research
Directly connected with the SCI and Preclinical Research Labs, the Clinical Cell Therapy Program is a joint program between neurology and hematology under the leadership of Professor Olle Lindvall. The HSC Transplantation Section has full accreditation by European and US authorities and serves the entire population of Southern Sweden, and also receives patients from other regions and countries. The unit performs approximately 50 autologous and 20 allogeneic transplants per year, and the capacity will be increased by as much as 50% within the 1-2 next years.

In an effort to strengthen the academic focus, new professorship was recently established in the HSC Transplantation Section, (professor Gunnar Juiusson), and a second is under recruitment for the pediatric HSC transplantation unit.

The Neural Cell Replacement Section (professor Olle Lindvall) has since 1987 a well-functioning organization for collection, procurement and transplantation of human fetal tissue to patients with Parkinson's Disease, and is one of the most active neural cell transplantation research teams in the world.

The Gene Therapy Section (professor Stefan Karlsson) is developing HSC based gene therapy for genetic diseases and malignancies of the blood (ref). For CNS disorders cells engineered to overexpress neurotrophic factors are co-transplanted with dopaminergic neurons to enhance survival and function of transplanted neurons.