Push For Stem Cell Research Raises Hopes In Wisconsin
JENNY PRICE - Associated Press

Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004

BOSTON - Backers of stem cell research in Wisconsin, where scientists pioneered
the work, said the push at Tuesday's National Democratic Convention to lift
restrictions on federal funding could help bring the state economic and scientific
results.

Delegates approved a party platform that includes a plank calling for reversing
restrictions President Bush placed on the research almost three years ago. And
Ron Reagan, the son of the late President Reagan, used a convention speech
Tuesday night to express his support for putting more federal money behind stem
cell research.

John Kerry has already said he would overturn those funding restrictions if elected.

"Not only is this an issue of enormous good for the whole world but for our
economic growth in the state of Wisconsin," said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.

In 1998, University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher James Thomson became the
first to grow and sustain human embryonic stem cells in the lab. There are now 58
people working with stem cells in Wisconsin.

UW-Madison's WiCell Research Institute, a nonprofit laboratory set up in 1999,
currently markets five lines of human embryonic stem cells that scientists can use
for research supported by federal grants.

WiCell holds a license to distribute the cells from the Wisconsin Alumni Research
Foundation, the licensing agency for university discoveries.

Scientists can buy cells from the institute for $900. The university has distributed
cells from its existing lines to 218 U.S. researchers, WARF spokesman Andrew
Cohn said.

"Once we move this past the research stage, companies are going to want to move
toward the brain power," Cohn said. "A whole new industry is being developed here
in Wisconsin."

Doyle, whose mother has suffered from Parkinson's disease for 25 years, urged the
Democratic National Committee in June to include the plank allowing the
development of new stem cell lines from human embryos that would otherwise be
discarded by fertility clinics.

He said in Boston that Bush is "so tied up in some kind of ideology" that he's not
able to explain the rationale for the limits.

But Bush campaign spokeswoman Merrill Smith said the president's decision
"allows us to explore the promise of stem cell research and do so in a way that
doesn't cross a moral threshold."

Since Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research to lines in existence before
Aug. 9, 2001, the number of lines available for research has dropped from more
than 78 to 19.

Embryonic stem cells are the basic building blocks of the body. They form within
days of conception and are the ancestral cells from which all of the organs and
others cells develop.

Scientists believe that research could lead to using the cells to replace or restore
failing organs, treating such conditions as heart disease, spinal injury, diabetes and
Parkinson's disease.

The use of stem cells is controversial because extracting the cells kills a living
human embryo.

Steven Singh, a first-year medical student and first-time delegate, said the Bush
administration has hindered progress by meddling in ethical questions that are best
handled by researchers.

"It's going to take a lot of time and a lot of money," he said. "The longer we wait, the
longer we delay those sorts of benefits."

ON THE NET

WiCell Research Institute:
http://www.wicell.org/

SOURCE: Duluth News Tribune, MN
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/9257504.htm

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