PREPARE

Towards socially robust stem cell therapy

Stem cell medicine offers hope to many living with serious conditions not adequately addressed by currently available therapies. Discoveries in reNEW and other major initiatives across the globe continue to make progress towards innovative solutions involving cell and gene therapies, tissue engineering, regeneration, and identification of novel and safer drugs using stem cell research. At the same time there are also significant ethical, legal, sociocultural and health economic implications that need to be considered in concert with such developments.

To meet these challenges, PREPARE aims to bridge the gap between biomedical research, the clinical, regulatory bodies, commercial sectors, patients and publics.

Who is PREPARE?

PREPARE is a team of interdisciplinary researchers with expertise in medical sociology, science and technology studies, medical humanities, science communication, bioethics, clinical translation regulation, and health economics.

What will PREPARE do?

PREPARE will work with their reNEW colleagues to consider issues affecting potential impact, development, and delivery of stem cell medicine to the market. Drawing on the team’s extensive expertise, PREPARE will drive an integrated research portfolio across themes and nodes focusing on four core areas of interest:

• mapping hopes, concerns, and experiences across stakeholders over time
• representing the future – partnering and engaging to enhance understanding
• ethics and regulation in stem cell medicine
• examining the cost and value of cell therapies

The PREPARE Team is led by Professor Megan Munsie.