Overview

The University of Michigan is a world leader in adult stem cell research and home to one of six U.S. “core facilities” for the maintenance of federally approved lines of human embryonic stem cells.

Stem cell studies using animal and human cells are underway across the U-M’s three Ann Arbor campuses. From the study of basic biological functions to the search for improved disease treatments, U-M researchers are addressing key questions in the promising field of stem cell science.

Much of the work is based at three locations, the three pillars of the U-M stem-cell research enterprise: the U-M Medical School’s Comprehensive Cancer Center; the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the Life Sciences Institute; and the Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of the few places in North America that have made an institutional commitment to cancer stem cell research. Cancer stem cells are responsible for triggering the uncontrolled cell growth that leads to malignant tumors. U-M researchers were the first to identify stem cells in solid tumors, finding them in breast cancer in 2003. They were also the first to find pancreatic and head-and-neck stem cells. At the U-M cancer center, scientists are investigating how these cells mutate, causing unregulated growth that ultimately leads to cancer.

The Center for Stem Cell Biology was established in 2005 with $10.5 million provided by the U-M Medical School, the Life Sciences Institute, and the Molecular and Behavioral Neurosciences Institute. The center’s main goal is to understand the fundamental mechanisms that regulate stem cell function. That knowledge, in turn, provides new insights into the origins of disease and suggests new approaches to disease treatment. Most of the work involves adult stem cells — including blood-forming and nervous system stem cells – but human embryonic stem cells also are studied.

The Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research was established in 2002 with funding from the Medical School’s Endowment for the Basic Sciences. The center became one of the nation’s first three (now six) "core facilities" for human embryonic stem cell research in 2003, when the National Institutes of Health awarded a $3 million grant. The facility maintains nine of the 21 federally approved lines of human embryonic stem cells and supplies samples to U-M researchers. In addition, the center trains researchers to use the cells and conducts basic stem cell research of its own. It is housed in the Medical School’s Biomedical Science Research Building.

The three centers work closely together and collaborate extensively to bring interdisciplinary expertise to bear on important problems in stem tell research.