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Women's health, tissue regeneration to be focus of joint U. of I.-Carle program
Jim Barlow,
Life Sciences Editor 217-333-5802; jebarlow@illinois.edu
Gretchen Robbins, Public Relations Director, Carle Foundation Hospital
217-383-3016; Gretchen.Robbins@Carle.com
2/4/05
URBANA, Ill. —
Women’s health and human-tissue regeneration are the focus of
an agreement announced today between the Institute
for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.
The accord is a marriage of basic and clinical research in little-studied
areas that could lead to new treatment approaches, said university and
hospital officials.
“With this agreement, the Institute for Genomic Biology will be
leading the way in bringing genome-enabled discoveries directly to clinical
medicine,” said IGB Director Harris A. Lewin, a professor of animal
sciences. “The partnership between the IGB and Carle Foundation
Hospital is an ideal mechanism for promoting translational biomedical
research, precisely at a time when the public is expecting direct health-care
benefits from years of investing in genome sciences.”
James C. Leonard, M.D., the president and CEO of The Carle Foundation,
further commented on the significance of this collaboration, recognizing
its impact on the future of health care. “We see these university
researchers partnering with our local physicians to create solutions
and advancements in direct patient care. Our vision at Carle Foundation
Hospital is to claim our position as a research organization through
collaboration with University of Illinois researchers, placing a stronger
focus on translational research.”
Scientists working under the IGB’s Host-Microbe Systems research
theme, led by microbiologist Brenda A. Wilson, will collaborate with Carle physician Jon S. Weisbaum,
a doctor of osteopathic medicine, to obtain vaginal tissue samples from
consenting healthy women.
IGB scientists will then use newly emerging DNA technologies to isolate
and identify all microbes in the samples and determine how changes in
their composition and concentrations influence women’s health
and susceptibility or resistance to vaginal infections. Therapies to
promote healing or prevent infections are envisioned to result from
the research.
Scientists working under the IGB’s Regenerative Biology &
Tissue Engineering research theme, led by Lawrence B. Schook, a professor
of animal science, will focus on healthy tissue samples taken from consenting
Carle patients during surgeries.
The goal is to isolate adult stem cells in the tissue, then grow them
in experimental devices into types of tissue that can be placed into
injured regions to promote regeneration of tissue in and around injured
areas of the body. Possible applications would be in facial and oral
surgical repairs and in the repair of knee damage caused by football
and soccer injuries, or in conjunction with knee and hip replacements.
Researchers in recent years have begun to understand the complexity
of the microflora of the vagina, but very few of the actual components
have been isolated and studied, Wilson said.
“We’re interested in understanding what these microbes are,
what they do, and how they do it,” she said. “We know some
of the major microbial players, but there are a whole range of different
ones that take over during abnormal conditions such as infections. These
are not necessarily pathogens; they are existing microbes whose roles
change. We want to know what the changing dynamics are.”
Wilson’s team initially will study healthy samples from women
to develop a baseline of the composition of microflora.
Later, the researchers will examine the microflora under conditions
that occur, for example, with hormonal changes or antibiotic treatment
for infection that leads to an imbalance of the normal vaginal microflora,
as well as exposure to infections such as HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases.
Such knowledge, Wilson said, could allow for improved clinical treatments
and provide new methods for physicians to recognize early warning signs
of problems for which symptoms may not yet be evident.
Schook’s team includes scientists who have expertise in basic
genomics biology, biomaterials, and in chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Eventually, the tissues grown by members of Schook’s research
team could be used by Carle physicians to promote more efficient cell
growth in surgically repaired areas and reduce the need for yet more
surgery that sometimes becomes necessary when a patient is older.
“We want to design devices that will allow us to isolate the adult
stem cells from tissue samples taken from fat, bone and cartilage, and
then grow these cells in a controlled manner into bones, for example,”
Schook said. “We need to have access to healthy tissue to do this
work.”
The IGB collaboration with Carle gives a significant boost to furthering
the establishment of a tissue bank at Carle Foundation Hospital. Originally
conceived for the advancement of the Midwest Breast Institute, this
tissue bank is designed to be a resource for clinical researchers in
multiple disciplines. It represents the hospital’s latest foray
into research with the current focus on translational studies.
Until very recently and for nearly 25 years, the hospital was involved
in black bear research. Today, the hospital continues to participate
in care-management trials; currently, more than 300 clinical studies
are under way at Carle Clinic Association and Carle Foundation Hospital.
All research projects are subject to the prior approval of the Institutional
Review Boards (IRB) of both organizations.
