Forwarded from PAN:
More on the Senate hearing:
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "LauraJane Cohen" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 15:30:09 -0400
Subject: Senators Grill NIH Director Over Bush's Restrictions onStem-Cell
Research

From Friday's Chronicle of Higher Education.

Senators Grill NIH Director Over Bush's Restrictions on Stem-Cell
Research
By JEFFREY BRAINARD

Washington

Two U.S. senators who have staunchly supported biomedical research
lambasted
officials from the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, saying that
the Bush administration's restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research
may
be slowing progress in a highly promising field of medicine.

Sens. Arlen Specter and Tom Harkin suggested that NIH officials were
improperly playing down the importance of recent discoveries indicating
that
some types of embryonic stem cells, which the administration has barred
researchers from studying using federal funds, may prove especially
useful
in treating patients.

Mr. Specter is a Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of an
appropriations subcommittee that oversees the NIH's budget, and Mr.
Harkin,
of Iowa, is the panel's ranking Democrat. The two men were key players in
the five-year drive to double the NIH's budget that culminated this year.
But during a hearing on Thursday, their tone was at times testy and
challenging, with Mr. Harkin voicing "extreme frustration" about the
NIH's
responses.

Elias A. Zerhouni, the NIH's director, and other NIH officials said the
significance of the new findings was still unclear. They predicted that
federally financed researchers could make significant progress using
varieties of embryonic stem cells approved by President Bush to receive
federal funds. Moments later, however, he was contradicted by two
university
scientists, who said the majority of academic scientists disagreed with
that
view.

The debate concerns President Bush's decision in August 2001 to allow
federal financing only for embryonic stem cells that already existed at
that
time (The Chronicle, August 17, 2001). Mr. Bush said the policy was
justified because of ethical concerns over the use of such cells, which
scientists obtained by destroying embryos left over from in-vitro
fertilization procedures. Some people regard the embryos as living
humans.
But many scientists disagree with that view, and believe they can learn
how
to coax the undifferentiated stem cells to develop into any tissue in the
body to treat a variety of diseases such as heart failure and
Alzheimer's.

The debate has heated up in recent months because of new findings about
how
to overcome what could be a key obstacle to the use of embryonic stem
cells
in humans. The NIH has identified 78 separate colonies, or "lines," of
stem
cells that can receive federal research funds under Mr. Bush's policy.
But
most of these were developed by growing the human cells in a culture that
contains mouse cells, which for unknown reasons helped the human cells
grow.


Scientists and federal regulators are concerned that the resulting human
embryonic stem cells may carry dangerous mouse viruses. Another worry is
that the genetic material of the human cells may have been damaged by the
mixing. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration have asked
scientists
to do extensive testing of cells before any progeny of the stem cells
could
be transplanted.

Beginning last fall, researchers in Sweden and Singapore and at the Johns
Hopkins University reported separately that they had succeeded in growing
new lines of embryonic stem cells without mixing them with mouse cells.
However, those new lines are not eligible for NIH research funds because
they were developed after Mr. Bush's policy announcement.

Sens. Specter and Harkin pressed Dr. Zerhouni to concede that it would be
useful for the president's policy to be loosened to allow researchers to
use
federal funds to study a greater variety of cell lines, including the
non-mouse ones. Universities and corporations own all of the 78 cell
lines,
but so far only 11 of them have become widely available to researchers.

"It would seem to me we would want to jump on" the latest findings, Mr.
Harkin said.

"The hands of scientists should not be tied in any way," Mr. Specter
added.

The two senators said they were also dismayed to learn only this week
that
16 of the 78 lines approved under the president's policy may have been
developed without the use of mouse cells. They are not among the 11 now
available to researchers. But Mr. Harkin and Mr. Specter said the NIH had
previously assured them that all 78 lines were developed with the help of
mouse cells. "It makes me wonder whether the information process has been
politicized at the NIH," Mr. Harkin said.

In response, Dr. Zerhouni vowed to be truthful, but otherwise yielded
little
ground. It will take time for other scientists to independently validate
the
new reports about the non-mouse cell lines, he said. "We're heard about
progress before that did not materialize."

He said that researchers have yet to study the properties of any of the
16
non-mouse lines approved under the president's policy, which are owned by
researchers in Sweden. But he said the NIH was interested in supporting
further studies of such lines.

Dr. Zerhouni added that scientists can make significant process by
studying
the biological properties of a limited number of the approved cell lines.
That may enable them to draw meaningful conclusions from separate studies
of
the same cell lines. Those comparisons might not be possible if
scientists
were studying a multiplicity of cell lines, he said. "We are in every way
possible pushing this field," he said.

While he clearly was working hard to support Mr. Bush's policy, Dr.
Zerhouni
also said that he did not know whether the 78 cell lines will forever and
completely meet researchers' needs.

Senator Specter taunted Dr. Zerhouni, pressing him why he had been unable
to
produce any non-NIH scientist to testify at Thursday's hearing in support
of
his views.

Dr. Zerhouni's contention that the existing number of lines is adequate
was
contradicted by Roy Ogle, a professor of neurosurgery and cell biology at
the University of Virginia who is studying stem cells. He said that it is
important to study multiple lines of embryonic stem cells, because the
ones
approved under President Bush's policy may have genetic traits that limit
their usefulness in developing medical therapies.

Nevertheless, Dr. Zerhouni said that the NIH is moving forward as fast as
it
can, pointing out that only 5 of the 78 lines approved under the
president's
policy were available to researchers as recently as last September. It
can
take a year or more for each line to grow sufficient quantities for
distribution, he said. More than 60 scientists at 48 research
institutions
have received NIH funds to study embryonic stem cells, including
$11-million
in 2002.

Mr. Specter complained that that was unbalanced compared with the
$148-million spent by the NIH in 2002 for studies on stem cells derived
from
adult human tissue. Such research is not controversial, but many
scientists
say that the adult stem cells have proven less versatile than those
derived
from embryos.

"A rate-limiting resource" blocking faster progress with embryonic stem
cells has been the lack of scientists with the specialized training
needed
to work with the delicate cells, said James Battey, who heads the NIH's
stem-cell task force. The NIH has been working to change that by holding
training seminars around the country.

Toward the end of the hearing, Mr. Specter hinted that he might pursue
legislation to overturn Mr. Bush's policy. But some observers believe he
would face an uphill battle to persuade his Republican colleagues, who
control both chambers in Congress, to go along.

A list of the human embryonic-stem-cell lines that meet the eligibility
criteria for federally financed studies is available on the NIH's Web
site.


Laura Jane Cohen
Director of Outreach
Parkinson's Action Network
1000 Vermont Ave., NW
Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20005
ph: 202-842-4101 or 800-850-4726
fax: 202-842-4105
[log in to unmask]
www.parkinsonsaction.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn