Scientists from Brown, Women & Infants, Lauded by Time Magazine’s “Top 10 of Everything of 2010”
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The STAC-supported research is named one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year by Time in its recent issue.
First-ever artifical human ovary
Researchers from Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island successfully built the first-ever artificial human ovary using 3-D Petri dish technology to successfully grow mature human eggs in a laboratory setting. The research is considered a significant advance in fertility research and a new resource for gaining insight into how ovaries work. The research could benefit women who are infertile due to ovarian disease, who want to preserve their eggs before receiving radiation treatment, or who want to improve the success of in-vitro fertilization.
The research team was supported by STAC’s Collaborative Research Awards, a program designed to stimulate collaborative research projects that are well-positioned to attract significant follow-on funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health or are ripe for commercialization.
Since the program’s inception in 2007, STAC has awarded approximately $5 million to 30 teams of 71 researchers from 27 organizations in both the public and private sectors. The STAC seed dollars have attracted about $10 million in outside funding for Rhode Island researchers.
“STAC is proud to have provided key funding to support this innovative, collaborative research project and to serve as a catalyst for their efforts,” said Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) Executive Director Keith Stokes. “The recognition by Time of their efforts is a well-deserved laurel for the groundbreaking work that these scientists, and so many others, do every day in Rhode Island. Their efforts support the thriving biomedical and research communities that drive our knowledge economy.”
Collaboration of Brown, Women & Infants researchers
The work was led by Jeffrey Morgan, a Brown University associate professor of medical science and engineering; Anubhav Tripathi, associate professor of engineering at Brown University; and Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Women & Infants Hospital.
Morgan also recently founded a local start-up, MicroTissues Inc., which creates tools for scientists that want to develop 3-D tissues. Morgan is receiving guidance from the Rhode Island Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship – a center funded by STAC, the RIEDC and the Slater Technology Fund – to help commercialize his product.
“This is an exciting acknowledgment of the work of our team and I’m pleased to have received STAC funding for this project,” Morgan said. “Without STAC funding, this interdisciplinary team could not have been assembled, nor would this work have been possible. It’s an important validation of the importance of 3D cell culture technology and this publication has put us in an excellent position to obtain follow-on funding.”
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