Dear Friends,



I was going to take notes for you about the Stem Cell Policy Summit, but Steve Meyer has done such a
good job I will forward his to you.   I gave a speech Thursday at the Institute of Religion and
Health and was flattered that Bernie Siegel  thought it was so good that he had Baylor print all 10
typewritten pages and included it in the packets that went out to the participants!







   Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 18:36:52 -0000

   From: "Stephen Meyer" <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: STEM CELL POLICY SUMMIT: STEVE'S JOURNAL FOR FRIDAY JUNE10



I arrived in Houston on Friday afternoon very excited about the prospects of meeting with
scientists, researchers and advocates in the fight for cures for Parkinson's disease, Type 1
Diabetes, spinal cord injuries and so many other diseases.  I had been in contact with other
advocates since the First International Stem Cell Conference in Berkeley last year.



I did not realize how huge the Texas Medical Center was.  They have 43 institutes for medical
research at the center.  It is the largest research medical complex in the world.  I had heard of
the cancer institute but was amazed how much larger the facilities are.



Bernie Siegel, the Executive Director of the Genetics Policy Institute, is the organizer of the
conference this weekend.  Bernie and I met in the lobby of the conference hotel and talked about
how far the public perception has progressed since last year's conference.  There is an opportunity
with this conference to inform more people on the huge benefits of stem cell research for many.

Bernie told me about the stellar speakers who would be presenting during the conference.



On Friday evening there was a reception for the attendees.  There were over 75 stem cell research
advocates there.  We had numerous discussions on what is happening worldwide in stem cell research
and renewed friendships from last year's conference.  I got a chance to meet Sabrina Cohen and Susan
Faijt who both are confined to a wheelchair due to spinal cord injuries.  Both of these ladies are
very energetic for the potential of future cures.  The networking that took place will help promote
stem cell advocacy in the near future.



On Saturday morning we will be able to hear an introduction by the famed heart surgeon, Dr. Michael
DeBakey.  He is truly one of the pioneers in heart surgery in the 20th century.  We will also hear a
presentation from Dr. William Brinkley who is a renowned Cell Biologist and is the Senior Vice
President for Graduate Studies and Dean of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.



Tomorrow will be very exciting listening to the presentations on the research and the politics on
stem cell research.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________



   Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 22:42:37 -0000

   From: "Stephen Meyer" <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: STEM CELL POLICY SUMMIT: STEVE' JOURNAL FOR SATURDAY



STEM CELL POLICY SUMMIT:

SUSTAINING THE MANDATE FOR CURES

SATURDAY JUNE 11, 2005

STEVE'S JOURNAL



The sessions on Saturday have been extremely interesting.  Bernie

Siegel, our  host, introduced us to Dr. Michael DeBakey who gave us

a talk on medical challenges over the last 100 years and that we

need to continue to do research in spite of the political

environment in which we currently exist.



We had a very inspiring talk by Daniel Heumann who was in a terrible

car crash just as he was planning to enter college.  He described

how his hope to go to college was all but dashed in 1985 which was

long before the American Disabilities Act.  He spoke glowingly of

how he talked with Dr Wise Young who was at NYU who told Daniel "We

will find a cure for spinal cord injuries."  He was very inspiring

on the elected officials in Washington who now support stem cell

research and how exciting it was when the House of Representatives

passed HR 810 recently.  Daniel's enthusiasm was truly encouraging

despite his handicap.



Dr. Brinkley the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science

of Medicine of the Baylor Medical Center talked to us about the

biology of stem cells and what has happened in the last decade.  The

speed of discover in the stem cell arena is moving much faster than

the research that took place in the last century for the cure of

Polio.  Dr. Brinkley described the research in layman's terms which

was very helpful for us who are advocates of the research.  He told

us how difficult it is to do research when you have to have two

identical research labs, one for federally funded research and one

for private funded research.  Our federal government is placing a

huge hurdle in front of our researchers.



On the panel on Federal issues we heard from Daniel Perry who is

with the Coalition for Medical Research (CAMR), Amy Comstock who is

with the Parkinson's Action Network, Jennifer Poulakidas and Louis

Guenin.  For President Bush's second term obviously we will have a

hard time increasing funding for embryonic stem cell research

considering the President's statements to date.  One of the

panelists said that considering 70% of voters support stem cell

research, some of those who vote against the research will have to

answer their constituents the next time they run for office.



After lunch we listened to a presentation from Dr. Charles Jennings

who is the Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

He described some of the progress that is continued to be made on

the research front.  He is very encouraging on what will be

happening in research in the coming years.



During the afternoon session we heard from several panelists

discussing what has happened in Texas where there were several bills

which would have drastically limited stem cell research.  Through a

Herculean effort, stem cell advocates including Judy Haley and

Beckie McCleery and many other volunteers educated a number of  the

Texas legislators to help kill the bad legislation.  Also on this

panel we had Kevin Casey who is the Senior Director of Federal and

State Government Relations at Harvard University.  Kevin told us

about how influential the Catholic church is in Massachusetts and

how they discussed the embryonic stem cell research issue with the

Diocese of Massachusetts.  He told us that the state legislature

made a huge effort to understand the issues related to the

research.  The discussion process really helped educate the

process.  Harvard opened up their research processes to Gareth Cook

who is a Boston Globe reporter who won a Pulitzer prize for his

writing on the stem cell issue.



Rose Windmiller who is the Director of State Relations and Local

Governmental Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis told us

about the very conservative climate in the capitol in Jefferson

City, Missouri.  The legislation there was on the banning of SCNT in

Missouri.  The lobbying in Missouri was fierce.  The legislation was

unique nationwide.  They engaged the civic and business communities

in understanding the legislation to ban the research and the

potential negative impact which could result form the legislation.

There was a tremendous amount of science education for the public.

She said it was virtually impossible to take a blastocyst from SCNT

to become a baby.  Their efforts took a lot of the wind in the sails

of the Pro-Life lobby.  The legislation did not pass.  They are

trying to build an environment for scientists to come to Missouri.

They feel that SCNT is a very positive method to find cures.



The highlight this afternoon was the presentation by Dr. Woo Suk

Hwang who has made a huge impact recently with his research on human

embryonic stem cells.  He said that cancer therapy is one avenue for

stem cell research.  He discussed therapeutic cloning and methods

for transferring the stem cells to the patients without the normal

problems experienced with rejection.  He did his preliminary

research on cows as a model.  They isolated human stem cells from

human embryos.  Currently the Korean Government bans cloning for

human reproduction. The experimental process is very carefully

controlled such that no reproductive cloning could happen.   They

obtained stem cells in seven to nine days.  The presentation was

very technical with microscopic analysis of the stem cell lines that

were created.  He discussed several of the problems in the research

to date and recommendations for future work.  There are still

hurdles to get the stem cell discoveries to date to get it into

therapy for cures for patients.  He expressed his deep thanks to all

those who contributed embryos and the researchers who spent

considerable time in the research efforts that were made.  He

expressed his appreciation to the Baylor Medical Center and all

those who supported his work.



Dr. Gerald Shatten talked to us about the recent discovery of Dr

Hwang and how it used to be a concept and how today it is now a

discovery.  Our friends in Seoul have improved the efficiency to

where there is tremendous success with healthy embryos.  We are now

in June of 2005 and we will be able to take skin scrapings with

cells to find cures.  We now can have patients donate their own

cells for cures.  We now can go to the next step for clinical trials

on animals.  Our friends from Seoul are making tremendous strides in

research.  He asked the question why are we not working hand-in hand

to find cures for some terrible diseases?  He expressed his hope

that future cures will soon be found.



Dr. Wise Young told us that SCNT will probably not cover all the

cases for finding cures.  It will be very helpful in finding cures,

but it is not all inclusive to finding cures.  We do not have enough

stem cells to meet the demand for the cures.  Will we have a lottery

to meet the demand for cures?  What are we going to do to meet the

demand?  We are not going to be able to snap our fingers to meet the

demand.  There is not enough money to create the cells needed to

meet the demand for cells.  Don't set expectations so high that it

will be a failure.



Dr. James Battey told us about his work with the National Institutes

of Health.  He had a very inspiring talk on stem cell therapies in

the future.  He was very informative on the technical aspects of

research done at NIH.  It is a very time and labor intensive

activity.  He told us about the cells that are allowed for federal

funding of stem cell research.  There is still a lot that is

happening with cells created before August 11, 2001 when President

Bush set his deadline date.



Paul Mandabach who is the president and managing Partner of Winner-

Mandebach Campaigns was hired to help Proposition 71 to get passed

in California.  He told us that the biggest hurdles to overcome were

the religious issues and "Why isn't the Federal Government funding

this.  California has a $10 billion deficit."  They did a tremendous

studies on the understanding of the voters and what they needed to

know to vote for Prop 71.  They focused the campaign on HOPE and let

the antagonists be the folks who would not provide hope.  They

stated that California could bridge the research gap.  This was a

science issue, not a political issue.  They did a tremendous amount

of advertising and used numerous methods to get the word out.  Life

is precious and should be preserved through research.  He showed us

some advertisements used with people who are affected by spinal cord

injuries and MS on what possibly could be done to find cures through

research.



Chad Griffin who is Senior Strategy Consultant at Chad Griffin

Consulting, Inc.  He told us in more detail how the television media

was used in Prop 71.  He also said there was also a lot of spin-off

media Prop 71 got from celebrities and other spokespeople.  You have

to be careful on who you chose and how you have them talk about stem

cell research.  They talked about cures.  They stayed on message.

They challenged the opposition to  get them off message.  These are

not experts, so you team them with an expert answer detailed

questions when they are asked.  He showed us two interviews that

were held on Good Morning America and the Today Show.  You have to

stay on message.



Don Reed told us that scientists are his heroes.  When his son Roman

had an accident which left him a paraplegic.  He spent a tremendous

amount of time getting Prop 71 passed.  He said that Prop 71 is

under attack.  He referred us to www.cirm.ca.gov,

www.camradvocacy.org and his address at [log in to unmask] He

offered his advice to all who need assistance to help other states

pass legislation on stem cell research.  He told us about a letter

he received from Christopher Reed that said "You will see a day when

Roman will walk.  We shall prevail."  He had a very inspirational

talk.



It is now almost six o'clock on a very exciting day in Houston at

the Baylor Medical Center.  I will have another post tomorrow on

tonight's awards banquet and the talks to be held tomorrow.



Nina P. Brown

Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR), Asst. Treasurer and Founding Board Member

Parkinson's Action Network, Texas Coordinator

Texas Parkinson's Action Network, President and CEO

Houston Area Parkinson Society, Vice President

"Circumstances determine our lives, but we shape our lives by what we make of our circumstances."




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