The Stem Cell Wars Are Not Over

By Susan L. Solomon and Zach W. Hall

Nothing would give the millions of people afflicted with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injuries a greater thrill than to be able to rejoice that the debates around stem cell research are finally over, and "the Holy Grail has been achieved," as Charles Krauthammer put it in an astonishing piece in the Washington Post. Krauthammer said that last week's announcements that researchers from Wisconsin and Japan had discovered how to reprogram adult skin cells to resemble embryonic stem cells means that George Bush was right, that we have now found a way to create "a magical stem cell that can become bone or brain or heart or liver" without using human embryos.

It is not true. It is not even close to true. The new "induced pluripotentiary stem cells" (IPS for short) that scientists have now figured out how to make will be powerful tools for scientists studying the mechanisms of human diseases in their laboratories, and there is no doubt that this is an important scientific event. But these reprogrammed cells cannot be used to treat human patients in the clinic, because they were created using genes and retroviruses that can cause cancer in humans. Moreover, even if other, safe ways of producing these new IPS cells are found, no one yet knows the extent to which these new cells will behave like true human embryonic stem cells. Krauthammer and others who are seeking to justify current federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research would like to think that IPS cells are exactly the same as embryonic stem cells, but they are not. We know now that human embryonic stem cell lines, both those that are recognized by the 2001 federal guidelines and those that have been developed since then, come in many different types and vary greatly from one to the other, most importantly in their ability to form differentiated cells (heart, pancreas, neurons) of a particular type that can be used for therapy. Will the new IPS cells be able to do this? We do not yet know. This new technique of developing stem cells is only a way station in a much longer journey, not a destination.

To suggest, as Krauthammer and others have, that we now have no need to work with stem cells created from embryos is to say that we can put aside the research that remains the most promising and important. It is a conclusion based on political, not scientific, considerations. Unfortunately, those political considerations seem to have motivated much of the reporting on these new discoveries -- even though one of the scientists who discovered the new technology, Shinya Yamanaka, felt so strongly that his work did not pre-empt other kinds of stem cell research that he co-authored a letter with several colleagues published in the journal Cell Stem Cell titled "New Advances in IPS Cell Research Do Not Obviate the Need for Human Embryonic Stem Cells." Yamanaka and his colleagues wrote:

"We hold that research into all avenues of human stem cell research must proceed together. Society deserves to have the full commitment of scientific inquiry at its service. And science is a practice that works best when it is approached with an open and creative mind. Research into one approach can inspire new ideas in unpredictable and exciting ways."

Of course he is right. It is crucial to our ultimate success to allow wide access to all of the stem cell lines that have already been created from embryos as well as to continue to create new lines for comparative and other purposes, including the research that can only be done with human embryonic stem cells. To gain the most benefit from the new discoveries, it is urgent -- as urgent as it was before these announcements -- that the current federal restrictions be lifted. For many kinds of research, there is still no substitute for actual human embryonic stem cells, and these new discoveries simply don't change that fact.

The greatest loss of all would be if these exciting new discoveries were allowed to create the false belief that the kind of research opposed by the Bush administration -- research involving actual human embryonic stem cells rescued from frozen embryos that would otherwise have been discarded -- was no longer necessary, and if the funds needed to advance that research, which have been hard enough to raise in the absence of federal support, were to become scarcer still. If it becomes even harder to fund human embryonic stem cell research in light of these new discoveries, they will, ironically, end up being as much a roadblock to scientific progress as an advance, which is something the researchers behind them never wanted to see happen. The only voices saying that these new discoveries have made the debate over stem cell research moot are the voices that were opposed to human embryonic stem cell research all along.

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa once said that science is like looking for a treasure behind closed doors that can only be opened by experiment. Since we don't know which door conceals the treasure, it is important to open as many as possible. "It is like you have got 10 doors that are closed and you do not know behind which door may lie the answer. If you [only] look behind one door, you have got a 10-percent chance of finding that answer," he has said. And last week, referring to Yamanaka and Thomson's discoveries, Senator Harkin said, "These scientists have performed truly groundbreaking and historic accomplishments. Still, our top researchers recognize that this new development does not mean that we should discontinue studying embryonic stem cells - scientists may yet find that embryonic stem cells are more powerful."

If only science were just a matter of following a single path. Doing all we can to further human embryonic stem cell research will advance the search for cures of the major diseases of our time, and it should still be the number one priority for researchers, as well as for the private funders who today are the only sources of support for this vital scientific work. It is far too soon to call "Game Over" in the stem cell debates.

Susan L. Solomon
CEO, The New York Stem Cell Foundation

Zach W. Hall
Former President,
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Follow Susan L. Solomon on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nyscf

Comments

[JudgeMoonbox]

Then-Governor Ann Richards said that George Aitch Bush was born on Third Base and thinks he hit a triple. This hoopla about how ips cells vindicate George Dubya Bush is like being born on Third Base and thinking he INVENTED the triple.

Do people like Krauthammer really expect us to beleive that if not for Dubya's opposition to Embryonic Stem Cell research, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka would not have researched other ways of getting pluripotent stem cells? I'm not buying those Freedom Fries.

[Bulbul]

Before you cast your vote, good to remember Democratic Candidates Supports Stem Cell research and the Republicans Candidates said NO.
Federal Funding for the advancement of Science in general has taken such a downward spiral turn during the current administration, forced some of the brilliant American Scientists move outside the country to continue their research.

[EliPariser08]

Susan

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/341704_fate30.html

A week ago, researchers in Wisconsin and Japan said they had reprogrammed adult stem cells to mimic properties of embryonic stem cells, a breakthrough that was heralded because it could allow scientists to harvest beneficial stem cells without destroying embryos.

On Thursday, a Seattle-based startup, Fate Therapeutics -- established by leaders in stem cell research and some of the biggest names in life science investing -- announced it has landed $12 million to fund a venture with a similar goal.

Whereas the scientists in Wisconsin and Japan reformulated adult cells into embryoniclike stem cells by adding genes to the adult cells, Fate's technology uses a drug cocktail in order to do the same thing, said Randall Moon, one of Fate Therapeutics' founders and the director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington.



also read

http://www.pehub.com/article/articledetail.php?articlepostid=9125

&

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071129005276&newsLang=en

[drricklippin]

"This new technique of developing stem cells is only a way station in a much longer journey, not a destination" says Susan Solomon

She is correct but this statement reflects the reality that the whole stem cell issue might be one giant "red herring" deflecting attention from the immediate issue of providing decent basic affordable health care to every US citizen.

Dr. Rick Lippin
http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com

[The Collinbrandt]

Cloning and abortion are two different issues and therfor, why do we fuse and confuse the two. I have trouble with very late term abortions because, when does the slab of cells and the human baby begin? I don't know. This is not a moral value but, a scientific one. So, I would leave abortion controls to the better judgement of scientists in the field with of course, some oversight by elected officials. However, it is just common sence to use all and any material not being formed into a human being for the betterment of mankind. Tissue that is to be destroyed is in no moral way a human being. Those faith based persons that want to hate science no matter what, are holding back all of mankind because of some modern mythologic­al/politic­al agenda. They want to kill everyone through a global holocaust and save all the egg and sperm cells?

[Mormondude]

And you compare IPS to ES because ES has produced so many cures?

Give me a break. You don't know that ES will EVER produce a single cured patient.

You never mention that ES cells have their own unique problems that IPS don't. For example, ES cells from individual patients would have to be CLONED. As you know, this procedure and all research related to it were banned by Bill Clinton in 1998, and that ban in still in place. IPS cells do not need to be cloned in that same way, so that ban does not impede them. So not only is there an ethical reason to prefer the IPS, there are regulatory reasons as well.

Notable top scientists in the field have already abandoned the old ES methodology, including Ian Wilmut, who did the groundbreaking work of cloning Dolly the sheep. The science is moving away from ES cells as a therapeutic avenue, and has been for years. The ideologues are the ones hyperventilating over this latest finding, since it threatens their pet methodology. They are the ones that are trying to resurrect the ES cells by trying to frame is as some sort of ideological discrimination, when that's less and less true every day.

The science is evolving past ES cells, and only the ideologues are left screaming and screeching about how necessary they still are.

[GawdFraud]

Back in the 50’s and 60’s the Federal Govt poured millions of dollars into basic and applied sciences of all types. The result was a nation that became the world’s leader in technology and scientific innovation and led to most of the scientific advancements like the Internet, space exploration and medical sciences that we take for granted today. But over the past 7 years we have seen a steady erosion of that position as a combination of political and religious know-nothings have placed overly restrictive shackles on our scientists. As a result we are seeing new leadership in places like China and India that are developing the potential to wipe out our position as the scientific innovation leaders of the world.
Without an effort similar to the post WW II surge in support, we will soon be a third world country that only will be able to reflect longingly on our past glory and leadership.

[YankeeCanuck]

Yes, science will continue but in this country it will continue to be restricted. Using this highly touted discovery is still years away. Besides that, more mature cells may cause a higher rate of host-versus-graft disease and its flip side,graft­-versus-ho­st. Embryonic cells are not yet differentiated and potentially less hostile.

The sad thing is that there are so many Americans who must suffer and die of afflictions because of the president's religious superstitions.

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Solomon,

What an extremely excellent, eloquently expressed and SPOT-ON essay/post!

Thank you SOooooooooo much, this is really important for People to know. You made my day with your post. Agape.

[ljsfolly]

The media continues to prove that there isn't a lot of truth put out there when it comes to what the boss or whomever is the decider makes when bush and co call or adjust the news and reports to what they want it to read. The media still does the lying for him.

[Brainspore]

This has probably been the most anti-science administration of the last century.

That said, the silver lining is science will always continue to trudge forward no matter how many people try to slow its march - such is the nature of information. We couldn't stop it if we wanted to. We can only try to help it along.