Proponents of a $12.5 million Center for Regenerative Medicine at The University of Iowa say the facility would help advance potential biomedical cures for people with spinal cord injury, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and Huntington's.

"We believe in the tremendous potential of stem cell research, and this facility would help researchers in these types of investigations," said Peter Densen, Executive Dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.

Funding for the facility is included in the budget proposal of Gov. Chet Culver, who also pushed to lift the state's ban on therapeutic cloning, which is one way to make embryonic stem cells.

At least a dozen UI research projects currently use several types of stem cells permitted by federal law. These projects include inquiries into:

• Understanding how transplanted embryonic stem cells avoid immune rejection
• A mechanism that might allow progenitor cells to repair damaged blood vessels in diabetic patients
• The therapeutic potential of skin stem cells

In addition, the UI Hematopoetic Stem Cell Bank at UI Hospitals and Clinics provides voluntarily donated umbilical cord blood for promising research studies.

Meredith Hay, UI vice president for research, underscored the University's strong support for scientists conducting stem cell research.

"Other states have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in biomedical research," Hay said. "Iowa needs to catch up."

Interim UI President Gary Fethke said the Center would benefit UI's already strong departments of oncology, cardiology, neurology, and diseases of the aging.

Key leaders of the project will include George Weiner, MD, director of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at UI, Paul Rothman, MD, head of the Department of Internal Medicine, and Jean Robillard, MD, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine.

The Center for Regenerative Medicine would be part of the Iowa Institute for Biomedical Discovery, which will span multiple colleges and centers within UI and focus on research into cancer, heart disease, stroke, and age-related conditions.