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Thursday > September 7 > 2006
Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital to build stem-cell centre
Research holds promise for cures
AARON DERFEL
The Gazette
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital is continuing to expand its facilities, announcing
yesterday it will build a $9.2-million stem-cell research and therapy centre by
the fall of 2008.
The three-storey building will be devoted to translational research - bridging
the traditional gap between laboratory experiments and clinical therapy. In this
respect, Maisonneuve-Rosemont is part of a trend sweeping North American
hospitals.
"This is a major leap forward, because we have not been able to do all these
manipulations (of stem cells) that are required to help various patients - those
with arthritis, leukemia, lymphoma and bone cancer," said Denis Claude Roy,
Maisonneuve-Rosemont's research director.
Stem-cell research holds the promise to cure diabetes as well as
neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease. Scientists hope stem cells
might one day be used to regenerate damaged heart tissue and treat cancer.
Stem cells can differentiate into many types of cells - from neurons to
pancreatic islets. They can be harvested from a human embryo - an ethically
thorny option Maisonneuve-Rosemont has decided not to pursue.
There are also adult stem cells that are produced in bone marrow. They are
called hematopoietic stem cells and are responsible for creating blood and
immune cells. For years, doctors have practised a form of stem-cell therapy by
harvesting hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow of patients suffering
from leukemia.
Scientists have continued to refine bone-marrow transplants, and Roy suggested
the future holds many possibilities for the use of other adult stem cells.
"In the last century, we made breakthroughs in molecular biology that allowed us
to develop (drug) molecules to treat patients," he said. "But in the 21st
century, we're going to use (certain immune) cells that will be able to do
highly complex tasks, like recognizing cancer cells."
Penny Pasmore Baudinet, a
69-year-old downtown resident, underwent a hematopoietic stem-cell transplant at
Maisonneuve-Rosemont in 2002 to treat her multiple myeloma, a cancer of the
immune system.
Yesterday she recounted her experience of sitting in a room with her blood
running through a machine. The device skimmed white cells from her blood;
doctors then grew the cells in a lab.
She spent three weeks in a sterile room after doctors nearly destroyed her
cancer-riddled blood system with powerful chemotherapy drugs. They then infused
her with the beefed-up white blood cells, which rebuilt her blood system.
Although she's not cured, Pasmore Baudinet said she feels as if she were reborn.
"If I feel sick again in one, two or three years and Dr. Roy is not happy, he'll
hurry up and do something with my stem cells in the new centre, and will try
something new on me," she said, bringing hospital staff to tears at a news
conference yesterday.
During the 1990s, Maisonneuve-Rosemont was neglected by successive provincial
governments and its emergency room was routinely overcrowded. The hospital
resorted to renting trailers to treat dialysis patients.
After eight years of waiting, however, the hospital inaugurated a $73-million
ambulatory-care centre last September. The lion's share of the funding came from
the Quebec government.
Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand attended yesterday's news
conference. Unprompted by reporters, he denied the funding announcement had
anything to do with an impending provincial election.
The $5.8 million in funding for the stem-cell centre was allocated in the last
provincial budget, he said. Maisonneuve-Rosemont's foundation raised the rest.
The project will create 40 new jobs, including eight full-time researchers, he
added.
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