Melbourne receives $21m for pioneering stem cell research

The University of Melbourne has been awarded $21 million from the Australian Research Council to establish Stem Cells Australia (SCA), an initiative that will position Australia as a major world player in stem cell research. The SCA has been funded as part of the Australian Research Council's Special Research Initiative in Stem Cell Science. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Peter Rathjen said the SCA was a powerhouse collaboration between the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the CSIRO, the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and the Florey Neuroscience Institutes. 'SCA will create a unique, critical mass of multidisciplinary research expertise required to deliver critical new breakthroughs in stem cell sciences,' he said. 'It will provide insights into the fundamental mechanisms of stem cell science to inform our understanding of basic, developmental, pathological and regenerative processes.' Professor Trevor Kilpatrick, Director of the Centre for Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne said the SCA would position Australia at the forefront of stem cell research. 'In the long term, SCA will develop proprietary bioengineering technologies that translate into marketable solutions for industrial scale up of stem cell products with future applications to the healthcare sector,' he said. Professor Martin Pera, currently Head of the Eli and Edythe Broad Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California, will return to Australia as Scientific leader of the SCA.