The Los Angeles Times
July 16, 2001
THE NATION
Uncertainty Is Thwarting Stem Cell Researchers
Policy: A top scientist is leaving for Britain, as human embryo cell
funding in U.S. remains unresolved.
AARON ZITNER, TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON --  One of the nation's leading stem cell researchers
is leaving California to work in Britain, in part because of the political
uncertainties surrounding the use of human embryonic material
in the United States.

The decision by Roger Pedersen of UC San Francisco, which the
university confirmed Sunday, is the latest and one of the most
dramatic illustrations of the political problems that researchers
are facing as they attempt to understand embryonic stem cells.
Many scientists think the cells hold the key to creating treatments
for a wide range of diseases.

Because President Bush has suspended a plan to federally fund
such research, pending a review of whether it is legal and ethical,
scientists are uncertain whether they can continue their work,
and others have chosen not to enter the field. Bush has said he
will make a decision whether to adopt a funding plan within weeks,
and the lobbying battle to sway him, which pits patient advocates
against anti-abortion groups, has become as fierce as any yet
in his administration. At the same time, academic researchers who
have private funding for embryonic cell experiments, which are
legal, have been told in many cases that they must do their work
off campus, an effort to make sure federal dollars do not pay
for even a light bulb involved in the controversial work.

And some researchers say they are finding it hard to work with
the private companies that control much of the limited, existing
supply of stem cells, because the companies are asking for rights
to research results that universities do not want to sign away.

"If federal support for stem cell research is not forthcoming,
the risk exists that talented scientists will leave academic centers
to seek opportunities in the private sector, or even overseas,"
said Dr. Haile Debas, dean of the UC San Francisco School
of Medicine. "That would be a tragedy of the greatest proportion."

More than 100 research teams have requested human embryonic
stem cells from WiCell Research Institute Inc.--the main supplier
in the U.S. and one of only a handful in the world--but only
30 teams have received the cells.

"If there was federal funding available, there would be 70 more
groups taking cells very, very quickly," said Andrew Cohn,
a spokesman for WiCell. "And we think there would be a lot more
asking, after that."

Embryonic stem cells have the capacity to become nearly every
other cell and tissue type in the body, raising hopes that they
can one day be used to fashion replacement parts for failing organs.
But anti-abortion groups say the research is equivalent to murder,
because embryos are destroyed in order to harvest the cells.

Those opposed to using embryonic stem cells argue that research
can go forward with adult cells, though many scientists say such
cells are more limited in their potential.

Bush suggested during the election campaign last summer that
he opposed embryonic cell research, but he has asked his staff
to review the science, law and ethics involved. Research advocates
take that as a signal that he is considering whether to change his
initial position.

At UC San Francisco, Pedersen has been director of the
reproductive genetics unit within the department of obstetrics,
gynecology and reproductive sciences.

He is well known for his work in exploring how mouse embryonic
stem cells give rise to various parts of the animal's body. He also
is working with human embryonic cells, a university spokeswoman
said, and had been trying to derive stem cells from human embryos
donated by fertility clinic patients.

Pedersen declined to discuss the political situation in the United
States, but said he was leaving for "the possibility of carrying
out my research with human embryonic stem cells with public
support."

Though he is leaving, Pedersen is expected to maintain some
ties to UC San Francisco.

Debas, the medical school dean, said Pedersen "is obviously
seeking an opportunity where he can do his work with less
difficulty than he faces in the United States."

Rules vary around the world on whether it is ethical and legal
to work with embryos. Many European nations have barred
or discouraged the work, but the British Parliament last year
explicitly authorized research involving embryonic cells,
as well as the creation of embryos for research purposes,
for scientists who obtain licenses.

That action made Britain one of the most permissive nations
on embryo work, though teams in Israel, Australia and Singapore
 have also aggressively pursued work on human embryonic
stem cells.

Pedersen in April suspended his own work in harvesting
human stem cells from embryos until it could be moved
off campus. The move was undertaken to make sure the
university was following National Institutes of Health rules
that bar the federal government from covering overhead costs,
for such things as lighting or refrigeration, for research
involving human embryonic stem cells.

Many other U.S. universities have asked their researchers
to segregate embryonic cell work from federally funded
experiments, even in cases where researchers offer to reimburse
the NIH for any overhead costs that stem cell projects might
share with other work.

Another complication, some researchers say, is that it is
unclear whether the NIH would allow work with all existing
stem cells, even if Bush authorizes federal funding.
It is likely that the agency would consider some existing stem
cells to be unacceptable because they were not created
under the strict ethics guidelines that the agency published
last year.

Among other things, those guidelines were aimed at ensuring
that no embryos are created for research purposes and the only
embryos used come from fertility patients, who must donate
them without coercion or financial incentive.

"We're simply not allowed to do the research. We have to wait for
the [Bush] decision before we can do any type of this research,"
said Lorenz Studer, a researcher at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York.

Studer wants to learn to guide human embryonic stem cells
to become a type of brain cell that is destroyed in Parkinson's
disease. The goal is to understand the mechanisms of Parkinson's
disease and to create cells that might be transplanted to patients.

He has already created the brain cells from mouse embryonic
stem cells and is now working with nonhuman primates.
But the work would progress more quickly with human cells than
with other primate cells, he said, because more of the human
genetic code is understood.

Ali Hemmati Brivanlou, a researcher at Rockefeller University
in New York, is also trying to understand how an embryo
develops parts of an organism. "If we know how an embryo
makes an organ--a pancreas or a brain--we can better understand
what goes wrong when it goes wrong, as in Parkinson's disease,"
he said.

Brivanlou had worked with frogs, chickens and mice, then
about a year ago asked the university if he could study
human cells. Because of the political uncertainties, the university
suggested that he take a sabbatical and work with
a private company.

Brivanlou approached Geron Corp., the leading private stem cell
research company, but when he saw the terms of its proposed
contract, he and the university balked. He says Geron would have
had the right to bar Brivanlou even from talking with colleagues
about any of his research at the company, a provision that
is common in the business world but inhibits the free flow
of information most academic researchers consider necessary.

And if Brivanlou used Geron cells after his return to Rockefeller
University, the company would not only have the first right
to license his discoveries, which is common, but would be able
to bar Brivanlou from bringing those discoveries to another
company if Geron did not want to use them.

"This provision is simply unacceptable," Brivanlou said.
"Because of these delays, I'm working with my frogs. But I feel
I'm not doing the experiments that I want to do."

Geron declined a request for comment.

Brivanlou said he is now looking for private funding to do the work.

Another researcher, Doug Melton of Harvard University,
said that coming to terms with private companies was so difficult
that he had resolved to take the trouble to create human
embryonic stem cells on his own.

SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-000058197jul16.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dpolitics

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