A prestigious award for biomedical research comes from a project co-funded by the European Science Foundation and the National Research Council. The coordinator is Professor Cesare Galli and the project's title is: "New approaches for research on animal embryonic stem cells." The project involving six laboratories in four European countries, aims to study embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos. The aim is to develop large animal models, such as pigs or sheep, which allow to verify the cellular and molecular characteristics of cloned embryonic stem cells in several animal species. Furthermore, since the pig in particular, for its anatomy and physiology is very close to humans, this project contributes indirectly to xenotransplantation research, which passes through the cloning of pigs from engineered somatic cells to obtain organs immunocompatible with man.
This type of multidisciplinary research on various animal models is a priority in order to develop therapies based on the use of cloned stem cells in the human and the support of the ESF shows its importance in the international arena. The birth of the cloned piglets is a confirmation of the suitability of the Laboratory of Professor Cesare Galli to have a decisive role in European research.