scrutiny. With the moratorium lifted, the Australian Health Ethics Committee was established under the auspices of the National Health and Medical Council to handle applications for licenses to engage in therapeutic cloning. Inspectors were also charged with monitoring compliance with new guidelines issued by the National Health and Medical Council. The first license was issued in 2005, and only nine more were issued over the next four years. Australia continues to restrict the production of eggs and sperm solely for purposes of research. States and territories also regulate stem cell research activity.
In 2013, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) announced that it was placing a five-year ban on all xenotransplantation trials in human beings, making it illegal to use animal stem cells in human therapies. A ban on using animal organs in humans had been issued in 2004. The chief reason for the bans was the fear that hybrid transplants could create new viruses. The board insisted that little evidence existed to support the success of xenotransplantation but reiterated its support for human stem cell research and therapies.
Stem Cell Australia
Stem Cell Australia was established as a multidisciplinary seven-year effort by the Australian General Research Initiative. It is a stem cell research partnership among the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The University of Melbourne hosts the group, and Professor Martin Pera was invited to return to his homeland from the University of Southern California, where he headed the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, to serve as head of the new organization.
Pera’s expertise is in the fields of biological engineering, nanotechnology, stem cell biology, advanced molecular analysis, and clinical research. His research focuses on examining the mechanisms that control the regulation and differentiation of stem cells, and he is considered a pioneer in the development of human embryonic stem cells and isolating and characterizing pluripotent stem cells from germ cell tumors of testis.
Stem Cell Australia is involved in four key research areas: pluripotency and reprogramming, cardiac regeneration and repair, neural regeneration and repair, and hematopoiesis. Researchers focus on four platform technologies that include embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, tissue repair, and immune modulation. Support services include Stemformatics, which deals with the merging of stem cell research and bioinformation to furnish gene information and visualization to researchers. Stem Core Labs provides research support on pluripotent stem cell lines. Flow cytometry is offered through Melbourne’s Brain Centre. Each of the eight institutions involved in Stem Cell Australia appoints a member to the Governance Committee, which provides institutional oversight. Scientific oversight is provided by an international team of stem cell experts who serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee, which is chaired by Professor Patrick Tam of Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney.
Because Stem Cell Australia was funded for only seven years, government funding ceased in 2011. At that time, the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia took on the responsibility of raising funds to continue stem cell research. The foundation is also engaged in educating the Australian public about stem cell research. Each year, the foundation awards Metcalf Prizes to two stem cell researchers who have completed their doctorates or medical degrees in the past five to 10 years. The awards include a $50,000 monetary acknowledgment of excellence in research.
Stem Cell Researchers
The researchers who are involved in Stem Cell Australia come from a variety of backgrounds. Based at leading research institutions in Australia, they are experts in bioengineering, nanotechnology, stem cell biology, advanced molecular analysis, and clinical research. At the University of Queensland, Perry Bartlett specializes in neural cells in the adult brain. His 2001 article describing the discovery and isolation of neural cells in the mouse forebrain has been identified as one of the classics in stem cell research by the journal Nature. Robert Capon of the Institute for Molecular BioScience maintains extensive diversity and microbial libraries.
Justin Cooper-White develops advanced technological platforms for research programs. Peter Gray is an expert on the biological processes of mammalian cultures. Melissa Little is a pioneer in renal stem cell biology and renal regeneration. Michael Monteiro focuses on the nanostructural materials field. Lars Nelson has been doing pioneering work in cell engineering since 1998. Pankaj Sah focuses on the mammalian central nervous system. Christine Wells is a specialist on inflammatory diseases, and Ernst Wolvetany brings a cross-disciplinary expertise to his research on iPS development.
At the University of Melbourne, Milella Dottori leads the Stem Cell Laboratory at the Centre for Neuroscience. She works with director Martin Pera on human embryonic stem cells and has a background in neural specification and patterning of the nervous system. David Gardner is known around the world for work in embryonic and reproductive medicine. Doug Hilton is a respected name in molecular and cellular hematology. Working with Perry Bartlett, Trevor Kilpatrick was involved in the paradigm shift taking place in neural stem cell research. Alice Pébay heads up the Centre for Eye Research. Joy Rathjen is doing pioneering work on pluripotency. Lachlan Thompson focuses his research on brain repair, and Ann Turnley works on post-injury regeneration of the nervous system.
At Monash University, James Bourne is the leader of a group that is investigating the ability of the neocortex to repair itself. Andrew Elefanty has earned an international reputation for his work on the differentiation of human pluripotent cells. David Elliot specializes in human cardiac biology. Robin Hobbs is an American who works on germ line stem cells. Jose Polo is an epigeneticist. Nadia Rosenthal is the head of the Australian Regenerative Institute. Ed Stanley is involved with the growth and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. At the University of New South Wales, Robert Nordon is a pioneer in experimental hematology.
Warren Alexander is the head of Cancer and Hematology and the director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. He is also in charge of the Mouse Genomics Centre and Gene Targeting Laboratory. Robert Graham returned to Australia in 1977 after several years in the United States to become director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Initiative, focusing on regenerative cardiology. As the co–deputy director of the same institution, Richard Harvey conducts research on heart development and congenital heart disease. At CSIRO, David Haylock concentrates on human hemopoietic and progenitor cells. His colleague Andrew Laslett developed the FACS-based immune-transcriptional profiling system. At the Florey Institute, Tobias Merson concentrates on myelinating cells in the nervous system, and Clare Parish focuses on brain regeneration.
Current Status
In addition to the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research at the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies Griffith University in Queensland that opened in 2006, a number of other Australian institutions focus chiefly on adult stem cell research because of ethical questions involved in embryonic stem cell research. These institutions include Catholic-affiliated facilities such as the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in New South Wales, the Garvin Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, and the Mater Medical Research Institute in Brisbane. Other institutions such as the Brain Institute at the University of Queensland, which is headed by Perry Bartlett, also have a tendency to focus on adult stem cell research.
In 2007, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research held in Queensland, Australian researchers presented 178 reports. Significant research in the 21st century includes Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman’s finding that they can grow a complete mammary gland from a single stem cell. The finding is a breakthrough for researchers interested in reconstituting solid organs. Researchers at Monash Institute
