Need Stem Cells? We Got 'Em
By Kristen Philipkoski

07:00 AM Mar. 03, 2004 PT

Faced with limitations on stem-cell research from the Bush administration, a Harvard scientist has raised his own money
and developed 17 new batches of stem cells, which he's offering to any researcher who needs them for just the cost of
shipping.

In August 2001, President Bush said in a public address that because he believed the research was morally questionable,
no federal funds could be used for embryonic stem-cell research. Researchers using government funds would have to use
the stem-cell lines that already existed. Bush said at the time that there were more than 60 lines registered with the
National Institutes of Health, but that number in reality was closer to 10.

Scientists have lamented the predicament, saying researchers in other countries like Japan, Germany and the United
Kingdom are leaving U.S. scientists in the dust, and that American researchers are fleeing to those countries to do
their work freely. Doug Melton, the Harvard biologist spearheading Harvard's effort, took matters into his own hands.

"I and others in the field have found it very difficult to obtain the cells on the NIH registry. Six to nine months
would pass (before we got a response)," Melton said. "I sort of gave up on trying a couple years ago and focused my
efforts on creating my own."

Researchers have encountered various problems when trying to access stem-cell lines from the NIH, Melton said. The
lines they want may not be available; the NIH may send the cells with restrictions on what experiments the researchers
are permitted to do; the researchers might have to report their progress to the NIH every other day; or the stem-cell
line might be very expensive.

Melton is motivated by more than just scientific curiosity -- his 9-year-old son has type 1 diabetes, which requires
daily insulin injections. Melton shifted gears several years ago after a career of studying the early development of
frogs. He saw stem cells as a potential cure for his son's disease. Now, he heads up one of the leading labs in the
country, working to create insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells from stem cells.

Melton said he's unconcerned about any political connotations his work might have. "I'm not a politician, I think
that's obvious, and the mission of my lab and the university is a scientific one. So we shouldn't be concerned about
the political aspects of this."

Stem cells, taken from 4-day-old embryos, are a mass of about 100 cells with the ability to become any type of cell in
the human body. Researchers are working on ways to force stem cells to differentiate into cells potentially useful in
therapies -- for example, those that produce insulin to treat diabetes, or neurons to replace those damaged in the
brains of Parkinson's disease patients.

Melton and his colleagues used private money donated by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute. They extracted the stem cells from embryos donated by the fertility clinic Boston IVF.

Seeking out private money is becoming something of a trend among stem-cell researchers. California activists have
proposed a $3 billion ballot initiative to finance embryonic stem-cell research. And New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey
recently allocated $6.5 million of the state's budget to stem-cell research at Rutgers University, and said he hopes to
pump $50 million into the research over the next five years.

Harvard has launched its own privately funded center on stem-cell research. The effort began as a collaboration with
Boston IVF in 2001 -- the fertility clinic would supply Harvard researchers with frozen embryos, left over after in
vitro fertilization treatments, that would otherwise have been discarded. The university is now building a new facility
to house the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. But until it's finished, Melton and his colleagues have to be careful not to
use any federally funded equipment or supplies for their embryonic stem-cell research.

"We used a room in a basement not previously used for experiments," Melton said. "It reminds me of when I was in
kindergarten and I got a sticker for being a good boy or a bad boy. We put red stickers on boxes we can get materials
from if we're doing experiments with these cells. We keep things segregated."

The researchers describe their stem-cell lines online in the March 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine; the
information will also be published in the March 25 print edition of the journal.

SOURCE: Wired News
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62513,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

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