The new international stem cell research center is a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands. These three world-leading research institutes aims to achieve a deep understanding of stem cell biology in organ development, tissue repair and disease mechanisms, which is essential to harness the therapeutic potential in stem cell medicine.

Stem cell research has become increasingly valuable in understanding disease mechanisms, repairing damaged tissue and growing new cells for most of the organs in the human body. The new research center will focus on a wide range of incurable diseases, including kidney failure, Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

Professor Melissa Little from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, has been appointed the CEO of the reNEW partnership and will take up the position as Executive Director and Professor of the center. The governing hub is based in Copenhagen at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

The new consortium will focus on three different aspects of stem-cell research. One of these, reSOLVE, is coordinated by the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) professor Christine Mummery and focuses on replicating tissues with stem cells to study diseases and test new drugs. The LUMC will try to reproduce heart tissue and blood vessels, among other things.

The second programme, reBUILD, aims to develop new clinical applications with stem cells, e.g. in treating Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. This project is being led from Denmark by Agnete Kirkeby.

LUMC professor Niels Geijsen is coordinating the third programme, reWRITE, which intends to develop genetic modification techniques to treat genetic disorders.

With its existing stem cell center DanStem, also funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the University of Copenhagen has grown to become a major center for stem cell and developmental biology in Europe. reNEW will build on this position further strengthen Denmarks position in the stem cell field.

Importantly, the center aims to make scientific discoveries and to translate these to stem cell-derived medicine. 

It is not only in academia reNew has caused excitement. Pharmaceutical companies jostling to enter the field of stem cells are also welcoming the research center. Many companies hope that the establishment of a research center of this caliber will attract sought-after researchers to Denmark and inspire valuable collaborations.

According to Rasmus Beedholm-Ebsen, Special Advisor within Life Sciences at Invest in Denmark, the foundation of reNew will have a huge impact on companies within the stem cell field. The research center will significantly support stem cell research and have a big impact on the education and employment of skilled people within the field. This will attract Danish and foreign researchers to Denmark and hopefully lead to new, important scientific discoveries. 

The research center also aims to translate discoveries to tangible products, e.g. mini-organs. Potentially developed in cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry, mini-organs can be used to test new drug candidates. Rasmus Beedholm-Ebsen expects that some of the researchers at reNew will find partnerships with major drug companies.

To read more on the Danish life sciences industry, please head to our fact page here.