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Bloomberg.com: News: "Glaxo Gives Harvard $25 Million for Stem Cell Study (Update2)

By John Lauerman and Brian Kladko

Glaxo Gives Harvard $25 Million for Stem Cell Study (Update2)

By John Lauerman and Brian Kladko

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe's largest drugmaker, will give the Harvard Stem Cell Institute at least $25 million over five years to speed development of treatments using the technology.

Grants will support work at the institute and at least four hospitals affiliated with Harvard University, Glaxo said today in an e-mailed statement. Scientists will use the money to explore using stem cells to fight cancer, diabetes and obesity along with nerve, heart, and musculoskeletal diseases, Harvard said in a statement on its Web site.

The funding ``will allow the Harvard Stem Cell Institute to ultimately fulfill its promise of advancing stem cell science to benefit patients,'' said Brock Reeve, the institute's executive director, in the statement. Glaxo, based in London, also said it will fund ``seed'' grants aimed at early stage research.

The stem cell institute, a collection of researchers from schools of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university and from affiliated institutions in Boston, was created four years ago. It plans to occupy part of a complex being built in the Allston section of Boston, the first step in Harvard's expansion into that neighborhood. The building is expected to be completed in 2011, said B.D. Colen, a Harvard spokesman.

Stem cells from embryos have the ability to become any of the roughly 210 cell types in the human body. Harvard scientists also conduct research with adult stem cells that replenish specific tissues and organ.

Private funding has become more importance since 2001 when President George W. Bush restricted use of federal money for research on embryonic stem cells because embryos are destroyed. Colen, the Harvard spokesman, said the institute had previously raised about $70 million, mostly from individual donors.

The affiliated hospitals collaborating on the research are the Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, all in Boston, according to the Harvard statement.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net; Brian Kladko in Boston at bkladko@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 24, 2008 13:54 EDT