STEM CELL research in Australia dates back to the early 1990s, with an Australian researcher gaining a patent for deriving animal embryonic stem cells in 1992. Much of this early research was conducted by Dr. Alan Trounson from Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria. He had been part of the team that delivered the first in vitro fertilization baby in Australia in 1980, and during the late 1990s, he had been involved in work using human embryonic stem cells. In 2000 Dr. Trounson led a group of scientists from the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development that was able to report work on developing nerve stem cells derived from embryonic stem cells. The success was reported on the front page of Nature magazine, and it received much international attention. It certainly helped focus research in Australia and overseas on the potential for more research into the use of stem cells, but it also sparked off much political debate about the efficacy of certain aspects of stem cell research.
In 2003 the Australian Stem Cell Center was founded as part of the National Biotechnology Centre of Excellence. Since then, the center has received about $100 million in funding, and although it is located at Monash University in the Monash Science, Technology, Research, and Innovation Precinct, it brings together research capabilities from not only Monash University but also the University of Adelaide (South Australia), the University of New South Wales (Sydney), the University of Queensland (Brisbane), the Peter MacCal-lum Cancer Centre (Melbourne), the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (Sydney), the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Melbourne), and the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine (Melbourne).
The aim was to establish an integrated series of national research programs, and the result was that the Australian Stem Cell Center quickly built itself into one of the premier stem cell research organizations in the world. It brought together researchers focusing on embryonic and adult stem cells and was focused on using this research to help patients suffering from damaged cardiac tissue following heart attacks, for the regeneration of bone marrow for transplantation, and in the use of stem cells in work on combating lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Work on cardiac regeneration and hematology remains at the forefront of research in Australia.
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Although there were few problems with mainstream stem cell research, the issue of the use of embryonic stem cells for therapeutic cloning research, by which human embryonic stem cells were created, used, and destroyed, became a major political issue. The federal government, uncertain about what to do, appointed John Lockhart to head a stem cell review committee to decide on the ethical issues that arose from the use of embryonic stem cells. John Stanley Lockhart, a former barrister who had been a judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory before becoming a member of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, heard from many bodies and individuals about the scientific merits of stem cell research, as well as the ethical and religious problems that arose. His report had to be submitted by December 19, 2005.
Initially, in 2002, the federal government of Prime Minister John Howard placed a ban, on the advice of Tony Abbott, Minister of Health, on the use of embryonic stem cells. Mr. Abbott spoke openly about his own religious convictions and the ethical problems that he felt might arise from an expansion of research into stem cells. This belief in increased regulation had seen the passing of the Human Embryos Act and the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act, both in 2002. The ban led to Senator Kay Patterson from the Liberal Party in Victoria (and also Minister of Health and Ageing from 1992 until 2003) launch a private member’s bill to overturn the ban. The cosponsor of the bill was Mal Washer, a West Australian Liberal from the House of Representatives, and the bill had the support of several other politicians such as the former leader of the Democrat Party, Natasha Stott-Despoja.
With the bill being debated, the governing Liberal Party and the opposition Australian Labor Party both offered their members a “conscience” vote. The bill passed the Senate, and on December 6, 2006, it went for debate in the House of Representatives, where supporters and opponents were believed to have approximately equal numbers. In the debate on the use of embryonic stem cells, an amendment, essentially a procedural move to send the bill back to the Senate, was put to the vote. Both Prime Minister John Howard, described in the press as being “visibly pensive” and the opposition leader Kevin Rudd, declared their opposition to the bill—with Mr. Howard subsequently embracing Juliet Lockhart, the widow of John Lockhart (who died soon after completing the report), and Kevin Rudd speaking passionately about his late mother’s battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Three leading cabinet ministers opposed the bill—Peter Costello, the Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister; Tony Abbott, the Minister of Health who had originally imposed the ban; and Kevin Andrew, the Minister of Workplace Relations. The bill was, however, supported by Dr. Brendan Nelson, a medical doctor and former national president of the Australian Medical Association, who was at that time Minister of Education, Science and Training (and later Defence Minister and Mr. Howard’s successor as Liberal Party leader), and the amendment was rejected with a comfortable majority of 23; a vote on whether the motion should have a third reading passed by 82 to 62, leaving the motion itself to be passed without a division.
The parliamentary vote not only widened the amount of research that could be conducted on stem cells but also helped to concentrate public attention on the possible advances that could be made from the new medical techniques. This led to increased funding for the Australian Stem Cell Centre. There was also new promising research at the Neural Stem Cell Laboratory, part of the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, where Dr. Rodney L. Rietze, a Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellow, is Head of the Neural Stem Cells and Aging Laboratory.
The importance in the research using stem cells in Australia was demonstrated when Professor Stephen Livesey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, was given the George W. Hyatt Memorial Award by the American Association of Tissue Banks to recognize his “outstanding contribution to scientific research in tissue engineering.” This had led to the discovery and development by Professor Livesey of AlloDerm.
AUSTRALIAN STEM CELL CENTRE
The Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) is a major Australian collaborative initiative uniting many of the country’s leading academic researchers with the biotechnology industry to develop innovative therapeutic products to treat a range of serious injuries and debilitating diseases. The ASCC commenced operation in 2003, in partnership with many leading Australian research institutes and universities. The principal objective of the ASCC is to integrate a national multi-institution research and discovery program to develop treatments for serious diseases through the application of stem cells and related technologies. A core role of the ASCC is to attract and secure commercial partners to advance outstanding research outcomes toward clinical trials initially, and eventually into the hands of medical practitioners for the benefit of their patients. Complementary to these goals, the ASCC proactively works to enhance the public’s awareness and understanding of stem cell and regenerative research. The ASCC also provides educational opportunities to research students and postdoctoral research scientists, facilitating a growth in human resources with experience and links to international stem cell networks and institutes. The ASCC is committed to the highest scientific and commercial ethical principles. Commonwealth and state legislation draw clear boundaries regarding lawful and unlawful scientific practice relating to embryo research and cloning technology in Australia. The ASCC is Australia’s Biotechnology Center of Excellence and has partnered with nine leading Australian universities and research institutions.
The center’s principal objective is to integrate a national multi-institutional research and discovery program to develop treatments for serious disease through the application of stem cells and related technologies. The center is headquartered on the Monash University campus in Melbourne. The main administration and dedicated laboratories also are based in Melbourne. In addition, the center is establishing a second campus at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
In 2002 the ASCC received a competitively awarded grant of $43.55 million from the Howard government’s backing Australia’s Ability, Biotechnology Centre of Excellence Program. To complement federal funding, the State Government of Victoria’s Science Technology & Innovation program awarded the ASCC a further $10 million to support infrastructural elements of the Biotechnology Centre of Excellence. In May 2004, the prime minister announced a further $55 million grant under Backing Australia’s Ability II to support the ASCC’s activities from 2006 to 2011.
The ASCC’s research and progress is closely monitored by several governmental agencies: the Australian Research Council; Australian government; Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources; state government of Victoria; and Department of Innovation, Industry, and Regional Development.
The ASCC currently has 16 research projects in progress across a range of four platform technologies combined with therapeutic programs in hematology and cardiac disease and a pilot program in respiratory disease. Hematology is currently the most comprehensive of these programs and in the very near term will make up several projects in multiple institutes and states. This program represents a cross-disciplinary, multi-institution approach to creating a new paradigm in the supply of blood products such as red blood cells and platelets. This effort is an innovative approach to the use of stem cell technologies based on world-class expertise in the ASCC. This program has the potential to place Australia at the forefront of cell-based therapeutics and may be the first widespread use of a product based on human embryonic stem cell technologies.
The ASCC is also investigating the use of therapeutics for congestive heart failure, which may offer benefits to an extremely large and growing patient population. Preventing or delaying the onset of heart failure using adult stem cells and related technologies is a highly competitive area of stem cell research. The ASCC has specific expertise in the application of cardiac stem cell technology and is supporting adult stem cell projects with a direct application to cardiac disease, as well as platform technologies that may further affect the development of this focus.
The Australian Stem Cell Centre has won $100 million in funding and is one of the top stem cell centers in the world.
ASCC Research Services, a division of the ASCC, provides important support to the Australian stem cell community, including adult and embryonic stem cell training; provision of boutique proteins that are required for stem cell growth, maintenance, and differentiation; derivation of new human embryonic stem cell lines and applications of proprietary in-house technologies for the creation of improved cells lines; and implementation of a flow cytometry facility.
It is anticipated that the center will enter into a number of collaborative arrangements with commercial partners to access certain technologies for use by the center’s research scientists. The ASCC has a number of collaborative agreements with industry to advance specific aspects of stem cell research. These include agreements with the international company Stem Cell Sciences Ltd to derive, characterize, and distribute new human embryonic stem cell lines as a tool for academic researchers (to whom they will be provided unencumbered of intellectual property restrictions); with Singapore-based ES Cell International Pte Ltd for the commercialization of research outcomes at Monash University that are relevant to diabetes; with Australian biotechnology company Nephrogenix Pty Ltd for expertise relevant to the development of kidneys, blood, and cardiac tissue, which is closely aligned with the key areas of interest of the ASCC; and with U.S.-based company LifeCell Corporation to collaborate in the area of tissue repair.
This includes a license to use their proprietary acellular matrix technology in ASCC programs and the ability to collaborate in future development for products incorporating both LifeCell and ASCC technology.
