MEDICAL BULLETIN

Stem cell research may lead to treatments, cures

Those with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are among those who could benefit

Stanton L. Gerson, M.D., pictured here in soon-to-be-occupied lab space, admires the new building’s “pleasant,” open floor space for equipment.

Stem cells may hold the key to treating—or even curing—a host of diseases. And Stanton L. Gerson, M.D., is working tirelessly to find the doors those keys may unlock.

As the chief of the division of hematology/oncology in the Department of Medicine since 1995, Dr. Gerson and his team of researchers are working on a variety of projects related to stem cell biology, stem cell gene therapy, the preclinical development of stem cell therapeutics and new cancer drugs, new drug discovery based on DNA repair pathways, and studies of stem cell aging based on genetic defects.

He is the primary investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) hematology training grant and on steering committees of other NIH training grants at Case in research oncology, cancer immunology and translational oncology.

The division’s move into the new Iris S. and Bert L. Wolstein Research Building will bring together all of the researchers in hematopoietic stem cell biology and transplantation. Of the 39 faculty in the division, 10 faculty members, seven administrators, six students and 38 research personnel will move to the building.

James K.V. Willson, M.D., director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, said Dr. Gerson’s program has a strong interface with the center. The move into the Wolstein Research Building will help all of the scientists collaborate and work to advance basic, translational and clinical research in the fight against cancer.

“Small groups can discuss their research, make presentations, hold teleconferences, hold impromptu meetings to discuss procedural issues during the conduct of an experiment, rehearse presentations, and review slides and computer data,” Dr. Gerson said of the meeting space in the new building. And compared with his previous lab space, Dr. Gerson said the new building offers “pleasant,” open floor space for equipment and larger tissue culture rooms. The addition of small meeting spaces afforded by the building, Dr. Gerson said, is a significant advantage because it will support regular lab meetings and quicken development of new research methods by enhancing the interaction between lab groups, whereas the “open lab” design will encourage sharing of core facilities such as microscope, flow cytometry and genetic microarray and imaging systems.

Dr. Gerson’s research has focused on leukemia, stem cell and bone marrow failure, and the use of stem cells in transplantation for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. He began stem cell research as a student at Harvard Medical School in 1976 and completed his first mouse stem cell transplant as a student at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. His interest continued at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, where he was involved in in vitro stem cell purging of leukemia cells for a clinical trial in 1982.

Recruited to Case the next year, he began working on stem cell defects in DNA repair, a major focus of his lab today. At Case, he is the Asa and Patricia Shiverick - Jane B. Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology.

Dr. Gerson recently led a team of researchers who found a method of combining a tumor-sensitizing drug—benzylguanine, or BG—with gene therapy to make cancer tumors more susceptible to chemotherapy while protecting healthy bone marrow cells from the drug’s side effects. The finding is leading researchers to study how to give patients greater doses of chemotherapy to destroy tumors while protecting the bone marrow.

Stem cell center

Dr. Gerson also is director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at Case. The center was established in 2003 by an $8.6 million Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Trust Fund of the State of Ohio grant and a $10.9 million grant from Ohio’s Wright Capital Fund. Case’s partners in the venture are the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Athersys, Inc.

The center unites international leaders in stem cell biology, therapeutics, tissue engineering and clinical medicine to develop better therapies for cancer patients. Dr. Gerson has said that the center “catapults Ohio to the forefront of stem cell and tissue engineering translational research.”

The center’s newly hired executive director, Debra Grega, Ph.D., has extensive experience in science and business development in biotech. She will be coordinating programs, developing new grant applications, expanding biotech contacts and facilitating technology transfer. Along with her come two new faculty members—William Tse, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor who studies stem cell transformation, and Kevin Bunting, Ph.D., an associate professor from Georgetown University and the American Red Cross who studies stem cell signal transduction and cytokine stimulation.

The focus of the center is on using non-embryonic stem cell—also known as adult stem cell—technology, instead of drugs, to treat and cure disease. The initial research focus is on common disorders, including degenerative joint disease, congestive heart failure, leukemia and lymphoma, and degenerative neurological diseases. But the center is recruiting additional investigators who will broaden the spectrum of diseases under scrutiny.

Dr. Gerson, who has maintained more than $1 million in annual NIH funding for the past seven years, recruited Mary Laughlin, M.D., and Omer Koc, M.D., to the division and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center because of their interest in umbilical cord blood and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) research. He has promoted the development and activation of stem cell clinical trials in cord blood, MSC and hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy. The Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine is an extension of his leadership in that area.

Other roles

As program leader of the Cancer Center Hematopoietic and Immune Cell Biology Program, Dr. Gerson coordinates the research activities of 23 faculty members from nine departments who collectively bring in more than $9 million in funding. This program also is involved in the development of therapeutic clinical trials with stem cells—the first MSC trials in the country, umbilical cord blood in adults, stem cell isolation transplantation, and the first U.S. trials in stem cell drug resistance gene therapy using the MGMT gene. Hillard Lazarus, M.D., director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at University Hospitals of Cleveland, recently was awarded an NIH grant with 14 other centers to conduct innovative clinical trials in stem cell transplantation.

As associate director for clinical research at the cancer center, Dr. Gerson oversees 85 investigators. He manages the center’s Protocol Development and Review Committee, the Clinical Trials Unit, the Biostatistics Core Facility, the Pharmacology Core Facility, the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Facility, and studies on cancer patients involving the NIH General Clinical Research Center. He also wrote the Data Safety and Monitoring Plan used for all cancer clinical trials.