Stem cell research at the cutting edge

The Swedish city of Göteborg prides itself on its excellence in life sciences and biomedicine. Collaborations between the city’s research institutions and pharmaceutical companies are offering new and innovative ideas for stem cell therapies.

Damage repair: a cluster of cardiomyocytes under themicroscope.

Sweden is home to about a third of the world's stem cell lines, and the majority of these are found in Göteborg. The city has built a reputation as a world leader in stem cell research thanks to close cooperation between academia, homegrown companies and big pharma – with support from GöteborgBIO.

‘This combination gives a fruitful and innovative way of working,’ says P-O Sjöquist, head of arrhythmia at AstraZeneca, which has about 600 researchers within its Drug Discovery organisation in Göteborg.

AstraZeneca is collaborating with the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and with biotechnology company Cellartis on an exploratory project within the field of regenerative medicine.

‘When you talk about regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies, people usually think of replacing damaged tissue with stem cell-derived cells,’ says Peter Sartipy, project manager and senior scientist at Cellartis. ‘The other idea is to use stem cells or stem cell derivatives as a platform to screen molecular libraries and identify new compounds that can be used to activate endogenous stem cells.’

Repair and regenerate
Throughout the human body there are various tissues that are sources of immature cells that exist to replenish and repair local defects. ‘The idea here is to use traditional drugs to activate those cells to repair local damage,’ says Sartipy.

The project draws on the expertise available at the three partners. Cellartis contributes knowledge about human embryonic stem cells and how to grow and culture these cells and differentiate them in vitro. At Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Professor Anders Lindahl and his research team are contributing knowledge in how to isolate cardiac progenitor cells or cardiac stem cells from human tissue.

‘Professor Lindahl also has access to biopsies from surgeries he can use to isolate and characterise cardiac progenitor cells from human tissue,’ says Sartipy. ‘We used these two cellular systems and compared the phenotype of those cells isolated from the human tissues with the ones that could be derived from human embryonic stem cells.’

The next step is to use the resources and knowledge at AstraZeneca to identify specific molecules that could further differentiate these progenitor cells into mature cardiomyocytes. ‘Again, these compounds could be key molecules for being able to repair local damage in the human heart,’ says Sjöquist.

Unique environment
Lindahl describes Göteborg as having a prominent role within stem cell research today. ‘There is excellent stem cell research taking place in other parts of Sweden, but the combination of Cellartis as a stem cell company and the university makes it a unique environment,’ he says.

Cellartis, of which Lindahl is co-founder, has grown to 60 employees with research facilities in Dundee, Scotland as well as in Göteborg. Chief scientific officer Johan Hyllner says the city provides the ideal infrastructure for the company.

‘We are located close to the preclinical institutes of the University of Gothenburg and a few hundred metres from one of northern Europe’s biggest hospitals – Sahlgrenska University Hospital,’ he explains. ‘We also have AstraZeneca as one of our most important collaborators just a few kilometres away.’

GöteborgBIO played a crucial role in setting Cellartis on the road to success, providing the first facilities for the company to establish itself in. GöteborgBIO also played a key role in kick-starting the regenerative medicine project. ‘For starting new exploratory projects it is critical to get this external seed funding to test new concepts and new ideas, especially in the industrial setting,’ says Hyllner.

‘The funding from GöteborgBIO was instrumental in putting together the project group and forming this collaboration network with Anders Lindahl and AstraZeneca.

Company profile

GöteborgBIO is a joint project for long-term growth in the biomedical field. Principals are AstraZeneca, Business Region Göteborg AB, Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg/ The Sahlgrenska Academy, Innovationsbron AB, Mölnlycke Health Care AB, Nobel Biocare AB, VINNOVA and Region Västra Götaland. For more information, visit: www.goteborgbio.se.