Contact:
Pamela McDonnell
Media Relations
NYU Medical Center
(212) 404-3555
Email: Pamela.Mcdonnell@nyumc.org
NYU MEDICAL CENTER AWARDED $1 MILLION STEM CELL GRANT FROM NEW YORK STATE
NEW YORK, NY – January 8, 2008 – NYU Medical Center has received a grant of $1 Million from the Empire State Stem Cell Board, which—established in 2007 by Governor Eliot Spitzer—announced its first awards today. The award will be used to supplement funding for work already underway in NYU School of Medicine’s Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of Stem Cell Biology, as well as to acquire state-of-the art equipment and to create training programs to attract more researchers to the stem cell field.
The funding from New York State will support high-quality research at the Kimmel Center toward a better understanding of how stem cells renew themselves and how they interact with specific niches in the body. It will benefit projects exploring the genetic pathways that regulate cancer stem cells of the immune system, projects exploring the regulation of neural stem cells as vehicles for neural regeneration, and projects aimed at identifying and analyzing stem cells and progenitor cells of the intestine, prostate, heart and gonad. The grant will also make possible the purchase of a high-speed cell sorter to accurately purify the minute populations of stem cells on which such research is based.
Robert I. Grossman, M.D., Dean and CEO of NYU Medical Center said, "NYU Medical Center is extremely grateful to Governor Eliot Spitzer and Lt. Governor David Paterson for their leadership role in providing state funding for stem cell research, and for sparking such prompt and decisive action on the part of the Empire State Stem Cell Board. This initiative will offer new hope to many patients and their families, while also playing an important role in attracting and retaining exceptionally qualified scientists in New York State. Through this far-sighted initiative, New York State signals its scientists that stem cell research is alive and well, and that there is public support for an area of investigation that stands to revolutionize clinical approaches to cancer and regenerative medicine.”
Established in 2005 with a generous gift from Helen and Martin Kimmel, NYU’s Kimmel Center of Stem Cell Biology has brought together 41 faculty members from 15 departments into a highly productive and interactive research group. Ruth Lehmann, Ph.D., Director of the Center and of the Skirball Institute, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Chair, and a Howard Hughes investigator said, “This exciting grant will allow us to further productive interactions among our stem cell researchers. We also plan to identify institutions and individual research groups within New York State with whom productive collaborations can be initiated. It is our goal to ensure that NYU School of Medicine and New York State are at the forefront of these exciting fields of research. It is also our goal to educate the future scientists, both basic and clinical, who will translate current discoveries into clinical benefits for patients.”
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