From virtual to functional: ES Cell opens new lab

Greater collaborative research opportunities are expected to result from the formal opening today of ES Cell International's new Australian research and development facility.

The Melbourne facility, based within the Baker Medical Research Institute at the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct, will house the company's management as well as a team of three scientists.

Chief executive officer Robert Klupacs said ES Cell's new 375 square metre home marks its transition from a "virtual" business to a company with international potential.

He said the facility's cell biology laboratories were already fully operational and catering to the demand for the company's stem cell lines, with 25 research organisations currently making use of the company's lines.

Klupacs said the state-of-the-art laboratories would enable the company to begin supplying its cell lines to the National Institutes of Health, under an agreement struck with ES Cell as one of few suppliers of purified cell lines created before August last year.

"Establishing the company's strategic and scientific base as the Baker Heart Research Institute...enables ES Cell International to facilitate collaborative relationships, which will ultimately help bring therapeutic products to market," Klupacs said.

"ES Cell International is proud to continue to support Victoria's developing biotechnology industry by ensuring we retain a strong presence in Victoria."

Klupacs said ES Cell was currently in discussions with three international cell therapy organisations including Scotland's PPL and others in Japan and the US, with a view to drumming up business collaborations.

The company was also giving a 15 minute pitch in a biopartnering forum at Bio 2002 next month, and hoped to return home having opened the door to relationships with three or four other companies and made itself known to researchers who may want access to its cell lines.

Klupacs said these were the sort of deals the company would need if it were to move forward and start generating revenues.

The Prahran facility, secured through a 3-year lease arrangement with the Baker, has so far cost about $1 million to set up with more money still to be spent. Klupacs said a Victorian Government Science Technology and Innovation grant awarded last month would also help the company boost its number of scientists, with research staff expected to reach seven by the end of the year.

As well as the $250,000 government grant, the company has also snared a share in a National Institutes of Health $3.5 million infrastructure enhancement award.

Klupacs said the grants were recognition of the potential value of ES cell research.

Officially opening the facility, Innovation Minister John Brumby described it as an exciting day for Victoria.

"This is a fantastic research area that holds great promise for the treatment of major illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Brumby said.

"The Bracks Government is strongly backing our biotechnology sector and Victoria is at the forefront of stem cell technology, where the estimated market for cell therapies is expected to grow to $US71 billion by 2010."