(mentions CMT) Stem cell center to diversify local job market

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Stem cell center to diversify local job market

Company might open July 2010

http://www.thesouthendnews.com/news/stem-cell-center-to-diversify-local-job-mark\

et-1.2108514

The Wayne County Stem Cell Commercialization Center, set to open at TechTown in

July, will prove to be not only a resource for stem cell researchers in Detroit,

but also a creator of jobs for Southeast Michigan.

Eliason, the center's director, has been at TechTown since 2004 where he

first served as the chief scientific officer of Asterand. He described his

current role as the SCCC director " to put together the concept and design, raise

money and eventually to hire staff and get things going. "

Eliason said that when the center opens, a number of jobs will be created.

" Direct jobs will be laboratory technicians, perhaps a scientist eventually, an

administrator and all of the things that you need to run a lab and a business, "

he said.

Eliason said that in addition to the direct jobs, an even greater number of

indirect jobs will be created as funding is received.

" We have a company that has already applied for some grants for doing some

development to take ideas and make them into commercial products, " he said. " So

this company, if it gets grants, will hire people and generate money.

" Some of these, if they have good ideas and make good products, will be spun out

into new companies. Each of these new companies will hire more people. "

The process of applying for grants, Eliason said, is a long one.

" We have received a $2 million Department of Housing and Urban Development

grant, and going along with that is a $2.1 million loan. That will finish out

the labs, but the technical difficulty is that there is a lot of paperwork

involved, " he said. " If it's done by the end of the month, then it's quite

possible that the lab will be completed by July. "

In addition to the grant and loan, Eliason said, another $2 million to $3

million is needed to equip the laboratories. Once the money for the labs is

available and the center opens the researchers can begin to use the stem cell

lab in connection to a number of different diseases.

Dr. Carol Brenner, a Wayne State School of Medicine professor and researcher,

said she is interested in the research of two specific neuromuscular diseases.

" We've targeted two, " she said. " Spinal muscular atrophy, and the other one is

called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. " SMA is a degenerative motor neuron disease,

and CMT is one of the most common genetic neurological diseases. CMT, named

after the three people who first identified it, causes progressive muscle

weakness and foot deformities.

Brenner and Eliason are currently in the process of applying for a grant that

they hope will continue to keep this thing going, Brenner said.

" We have a little bit of university money right now, " she said. " We're just

starting to apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health. "

Brenner said that getting grants from NIH takes time, but Brenner and Eliason

said they hope to get grants from other sources as well.

Sophomore a Lemanksi said she thinks that building a stem cell lab in

Detroit is a good idea not only for stem cell research, but also for Michigan's

economy.

" I think it's going to be very helpful for Detroit, " she said. " It's going to be

a great boost for the economy and help cure diseases. "