Evidence of meeting #35 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bank.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Who would like to comment?
I noticed that Dr. Hicks and Dr. Gibson....
Do you have any comments on this particular subject? We haven't given you a chance to really make comment. Is there anything you'd like to say in this regard?
Yes, Dr. Hicks.
12:05 p.m.
Director of Regenerative Medicine, University of Manitoba, Senior Scientist, Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology, CancerCare Manitoba
Sure.
I think the capacity building is really one of the most essential things to move this vision forward. We're very good provincially, and I would imagine nationally, in programs that have successfully recruited great scientists and great clinicians such as the Canada research chairs program.
Funding agencies and foundations are very good at providing infrastructure, building things, and buying tools. Where the capacity really needs a lot of support is in maintaining the research operating funding opportunities, allowing flexibility to move forward with some of these developments, both in engineering and GMP manufacturing.
Most importantly--if I'm going to have my say at today's meeting--I think we've heard a lot about how Canadians are the ones who have discovered stem cells. Canadians have led and continue to lead internationally, not just nationally, in the science, the biology, and the research of stem cells. Canadians, as a people, believe in stem cells. Of course, we all believe in the hope of translating this into clinical and health care. What would really bridge the gap is the ability to make that realization.
One of the strongest ways that can move this forward, and it hasn't been mentioned yet, is the ability to take the researchers and put them together with clinical fellows and clinical scientists, so that the two sides are working closer and this translation can happen at a much more efficient process.
There are two examples of ways in which support could directly enable and enhance this program.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for all the interesting testimony today. It's very apropos. We just had a neurological disorders subcommittee from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and we were talking about some of the challenges we face with ALS.
Could you comment a little bit about the promising current developments in regenerative medicine? I know there was reference to potential treatments. Do you believe we are on the cusp of any breakthroughs--if there was a framework set up that would allow greater research, greater investments?
What are we hoping for? Can you paint a picture for us of what some of the realistic possibilities are?
12:05 p.m.
Scientific Director, Stem Cell Network
Scientists don't like to talk about breakthroughs, first of all. It's an incremental process and it's a research continuum that starts at the bench and ends up at the bedside. We need support at every step of the way to move findings through that pipeline and to implement them to change clinical practice.
I think it is clear, and the evidence supports without question, that regenerative medicine will transform the practice of medicine. It's coming. It will find its way into the clinic through many different avenues for many different diseases. But we will move from the current practices to practices where we'll be harnessing the power of stem cells using drugs, using cells, using all the tools at our disposal to repair tissues through regenerative mechanisms.
I think we gave five or six examples today already, and I'm sure we can answer more questions with more specific examples. The Geron trial has just been started. It's the first example of human embryonic stem cells being used in a clinical context. It's the first trial using those anywhere in the world. That started a few weeks ago.
We know of 50 trials in Canada happening in the next three to four years using cell-based approaches, ranging from Duncan Stewart's trial, where early-phase endothelial progenitors are being genetically modified in a transient way, to promote blood vessel growth for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension where blood vessels fall off the lung, alveoli--I'm being overly technical, I apologize--through to treating heart attack patients.
Trials are being planned to chemically expand cord blood stem cells so that one can use one graft per patient or have earlier engraftment. The science is advancing and those trials should be under way very soon, and on and on. Cancer stem cells are also an area where we lead. A Canadian, again, was the one who discovered cancer stem cells, tumour initiating cells, and we're the first in the clinic with drugs that attack them. It's really quite remarkable.
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Provincial Clinical Director of Oncology, CancerCare Manitoba
I totally agree with what is being stated, but we must be visionary and look to the future to building that capacity right across the country. Otherwise, it will inevitably result in inequalities that the public will not be happy about.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
Earlier we referenced neurological disorders, I think MS or ALS.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Scientific Director, Stem Cell Network
A rather mature clinical trial has been under way for many years; over 30 patients with severe MS have been transplanted. They receive an autologous bone marrow transplant of purified hematopoietic blood stem cells. Essentially, this reboots the immune system. You have to receive all your vaccinations, otherwise you'll get all your childhood infections all over again, and then the rebooted immune system forgets it's attacking the nervous system. So essentially you no longer have MS. Those patients do very well.
The younger you are, the better the outcome, but we know of particular patients.... Jennifer Molson is one who was in a bed. She had to be fed. She had to be taken care of by personal caregivers. She was in a rehab facility. She's now skiing. She's working. She's living with her husband. She got her driver's licence. It's phenomenal.
That work is being performed by Harry Atkins and colleagues at the Ottawa Hospital. It's not published yet, but I'm sure it should be coming out in a high-profile journal. It changes the practice of care.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
This is certainly a fascinating and exciting area.
I read that there are approximately 200,000 potential donors with the Canadian Blood Services OneMatch program. An international network has 11 million, according to the notes I had from the library.
What is the sufficient number we need to meet the demands of Canadian patients? If you envision how many potential donors we need, what is the target?
12:10 p.m.
Physician, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, CancerCare Manitoba
It's a hard question to answer, because what we need is not so much the raw number of donors, we need to have donors who are available to donate. We prefer to use male donors. We prefer to use young male donors. And we need to have donors who are of a mixed ethnic heritage, or of our ethnic minorities, to increase the odds that a given donor is going to be a good immune match.
So it's not the absolute number that we need; it's a subset to target those for whom we have trouble finding donors. There is no absolute number on that.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
What could government do to assist in having that larger, more diversified donor group?
12:10 p.m.
Physician, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, CancerCare Manitoba
I think efforts, such as that led by Joy Smith, in bringing out the donor campaigns really help a lot. Helping establish a cord blood bank will help, as will basically continued funding of the national registry, the OneMatch program.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Your time is up now, Mr. Brown, I'm sorry. It was getting so interesting there.
This is an extremely informative, interesting panel we have here today.
We'll now go into our second round. We'll go into a five-minute question and answer round.
We will begin with Dr. Dhalla.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you very much to everyone for coming, especially to the folks from Manitoba. Being a former Winnipeger, it's great for me to see some of the work that's being done out there.
I have a couple of questions building upon what one of our other colleagues, Mr. Brown, just asked in terms of the awareness campaign and reaching out to get donors from young men and people from ethnic communities, and from the first nations communities. As the MP from Brampton--Springdale, I can tell you that we have one of the larger multicultural and multilingual demographics across the country.
There are some awareness campaigns already under way, but what other initiatives is the Stem Cell Foundation undertaking to reach out to ethnic communities in various languages and through the mediums, perhaps, that they're accessing?
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Stem Cell Foundation
We're a very young organization and only beginning to tackle some of these initiatives, but the kinds of things you're suggesting are exactly the kinds of things we're hoping to fund as we move forward.
12:15 p.m.
Physician, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, CancerCare Manitoba
This is a major campaign for the OneMatch program at Canadian Blood Services. Their recent donor accruals to their registries have shown a marked increase in younger donors in ethnic minorities. Basically, this needs to be an ongoing process.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
The Canadian Stem Cell Foundation has a stem cell charter. Perhaps you could share with our colleagues what some of the objectives of that charter are, how it's going to be promoting responsible science, and ultimately how it's going to allow accessibility for Canadians.