Idaho has a strong academic foundation for biomedical research and works in collaboration with regional and national organizations to perform basic research and clinical trials using adult stem cells for cancer treatment.
As no federal legislation in the United States regulates stem cell research (except by an executive order to not allow federal funding to be used for embryonic stem cell research except on human embryonic stem cell lines created before August 9, 2001), each state is responsible for determining policy and funding for stem cell research. Idaho has no clear position on stem cell research, making it an allowable and unregulated activity. Public and private funding is available through competitive grant funding, but no money is dedicated by the state for stem cell research.
Mountain States Tumor Institute at St. Luke’s in Boise has been treating cancer for over 50 years. The institute provides treatment at 12 locations in Idaho and Oregon. In addition to treatment and prevention activities, the institute participates in national clinical trials. Current research participation through the National Cancer Institute to collect data includes using stem cell transplants to allow high-dose chemotherapy to be used for increased efficacy in killing cancer cells in multiple myeloma or primary systemic amyloidosis and in patients with progressive or recurrent Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The University of Idaho in Moscow is a four-year public university conferring bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional degrees in a variety of disciplines including medicine, biology, engineering, math, and physical sciences. A researcher in the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry is collaborating with the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource to research the interaction of human cytomegalovi-rus with cells in the developing fetal brain. The National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource has a mission to expand research on neural stem cells nationally. The Molecular Biology Core Facility at the University of Idaho was established in 1995 with funding from the National Institutes of Health for teaching, consulting, and research collaboration. Services are available to researchers throughout the university system in Idaho and within the region.
The Center for Reproductive Biology is located at the University of Washington and was established in 1999. The center is a collaborative effort with the University of Idaho that began in 1989 with discussion on collaborative research projects. The center’s mission is to improve the possibility of grant funding, improve research collaboration, and combine education and research opportunities for students.
To meet its goals, the center has developed core laboratories for the centralization of cross-discipline research with researchers at both Washington State University and the University of Idaho. This is an organized research unit that integrates the investigators throughout the universities. The molecular cytogenetics core provides karyotyp-ing on established human cell line and human clinical samples, stores established cell lines, and provides growing cultures or fixed cell pellets to researchers. The histology core provides tissue preparation, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization to researchers. The assay core analyzes hormone (i.e., steroids and gonadotropin) levels in the animals exposed to endocrine dis-ruptors. The toxicology core studies toxins and metabolites in tissue and biological fluids. The transgenic core procures cost-effective transgenic and knockout mice for researchers. The molecular biology core performs DNA and protein sequencing and oligonucleotide and peptide synthesis. The genomics core provides bioinformatics support. Finally, the proteomics core separates proteins from cell mixtures and identifies proteins found to be up- or down-regulated in response to particular stimulus, disease, or treatment of interest to determine the fundamental biological processes and function.
University of Idaho Research Park, located in Post Falls, is focused on bringing together aca-demia, researchers, and the technology industry to enhance the economy through collaboration. The participants network to promote the region for business development. The 125-acre research park is within 20 miles of Spokane, Washington, and is 10 miles from the University of Idaho in Coeur d’Alene.
