Ontario to partner with California on new medical therapies

Toronto, ON – Researchers in Ontario and California are partnering on a project to make it easier to turn cutting-edge stem cell research into medical breakthroughs.

The province is investing $1 million in a partnership with California’s Gladstone Institutes (http://www.gladstone.ucsf.edu/gladstone/site/gweb1/). Gladstone researchers are leading efforts to implement one of the most significant recent scientific discoveries: that it is possible to change ordinary skin cells into stem cells. Ontario researchers – at the University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children – have developed the technology and expertise to produce these cells in quantity. The scientists will work together to advance this new area of stem cell research and discover breakthrough medical therapies.

“Ontario and California are both leaders in stem cell research – a field that has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of disease. Through this partnership, scientists in our two jurisdictions will share their knowledge and work together to realize that potential,” said Dr Janet Rossant, senior scientist and chief of research at the Hospital for Sick Children.