Stem Cell Research is considered a relatively new area with a high potential influence on the therapy of diseases that today are still not curable – such as e.g. Parkinson's disease or diseases that entail a life long treatment with drugs, such as e.g. type 1 diabetes.
The National Research Programme “Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine“ (NRP 63) aims at giving a boost to basic research on stem cells and regenerative medicine, at encouraging top scientists with an excellent track record in developmental and cell biology to engage in this field and at recruiting and training of young scientists in this field with specific scholarships.
The list of the main research areas below is in order of basic concepts. The main emphasis in the first item is on understanding the mechanisms involved and less on the phenomenology of the genesis and reproduction of organs:
- Stem cells and organ development;
- Definition of "stemness", cell plasticity and of stem cell niches;
- Comparison and functional analysis of normal and abnormal stem cells;
- Role of stem cells in repair and regeneration;
- Research on legal and ethical aspects of stem cell research and regenerative medicine.
Overall funding: CHF 10'000'000
Period: 5 years
President of the Steering Committee: Bernard Thorens, Center for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne
Head of Knowledge transfer: Adrian Heuss
Programme co-ordinator: Marjory Hunt, SNSF
Call for proposals: 16 February 2009