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Robertson Foundation Gives $10.2M for new Translational Cell Therapy Center

Click Here to read more and watch a video. Click Here to read the News & Observer story, "Grant to aid work of stem cell groundbreaker."

Duke Medicine has just received a $10.2 million commitment from the Robertson Foundation to create a state-of-the-art translational cell therapy center to pioneer new treatments for children and adults with cancer, cerebral palsy, stroke, and brain injuries suffered at birth.

Joanne Kurtzberg, MD"The emerging field of regenerative medicine has great promise, and this generous gift will accelerate the pace of [Dr. Joanne] Kurtzberg's and other Duke scientists' world renowned, translational work in cell therapies," said Victor J. Dzau, MD, chancellor for health affairs, Duke University, and president and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System.

Kurtzberg is director of Duke's Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program and director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank (CCBB), now one of the world's largest public cord blood banks, which she established in 1996 with support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She cared for the first person ever to receive a cord blood transplant and was the first in the world to perform an unrelated cord blood transplant.

Part of the gift will be used to build a 4,000 square foot laboratory where therapeutic cells will be made and stored. The Robertson Foundation support will enable future studies of cord-blood transplants to treat congenital heart disease, genetically-acquired neurodegenerative diseases, and brain injury resulting from stroke or radiation to treat brain cancer.