Ottawa’s latest brain gain brings promising new stem-cell therapy

OTTAWA Dr. Bernard Thebaud believes he can use the healing juices from stem cells the much ballyhooed future of modern medicine to rejuvenate the lungs of premature babies.

The renowned neonatologist and scientist has proven his treatment works in rats in Edmonton, and in a baboon in San Antonio, Texas. Next, he will design clinical trials to test his pioneering therapy in babies in Ottawa.

Dr. Thebaud is the latest recruit to the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Lured here from the University of Alberta, Dr. Thebaud hopes that within five years he can take his research from bench to bedside by launching the first clinical trials in newborns.

He believes his therapy, derived from stem cells isolated from discarded umbilical cords, can help people suffering from other lung diseases, such as asthma and fibrosis.

In an interview, the 47-year-old, who is originally from France, said Ottawa was the only city where he could do this research.

To get this work into patients, I need to be around a critical mass of top stem cell biologists, he said.

I dont want to be too clich, but if you are in the computer business you go to the Silicon Valley; if you are in oil in gas you have to be in Alberta; if you are in stem cells, Ontario is the province. And Ottawa is where they read, breathe, sleep and eat stem cells.

To land Thebaud, three Ottawa institutions had to team up.

When he formally starts in the fall, he will be a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and CHEO research institutes, a pediatrician at CHEO and Ottawa Hospital, and a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Ottawa.

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Ottawa’s latest brain gain brings promising new stem-cell therapy