# 279 Wednesday, January 10, 2007  - TIMING AND BART IN THE DARKNESS

Flash!  In yesterday's column, I had nothing but negatives to say about Dr.
Anthony Atala, and the timing of his announcement about his experiment with
amniotic fluid.

Exactly as I predicted, the opponents of embryonic research leaped on his
announcement, practically shrieking with glee-as if one unverified
experiment proved there is no need for embryonic stem cell research-dozens
of articles were printed all across the world.
And then.
A phone call from stem cell friend Jeff Eisen, pointed me to a press
conference, at which Senator Diana DeGette read from a letter from that very
scientist.
But let him talk for himself.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The author of a study on amniotic stem cells urged
Congress on Tuesday not to consider his work a substitute for the search for
disease-fighting material from embryonic stem cells.
``Some may be interpreting my research as a substitute for the need to
pursue other forms of regenerative medicine therapies, such as those
involving embryonic stem cells. I disagree with that assertion,'' wrote
Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University, the author of a study published
this week and widely seized upon by opponents of embryonic stem cell
research as a more moral option.
In a letter to sponsors of legislation up for a House vote Thursday, Atala
wrote that it was ``essential that National Institutes of Health-funded
researchers are able to fully pursue embryonic stem cell research as a
complement to research into other forms of stem cells.''-Associated Press,
January 9, 2007
Thank you, Dr. Atala. You had me worried there for a while, and I still wish
you had chosen any other week in history to make your announcement. But you
came through for scientific freedom at the last.
And now, as we wait for Thursday and the first vote, (after which we will
know who needs to be educated on the value of stem cell research, see how
many thousand phone calls and emails we can rally) on to trivia-a little
story nobody needs to pass on to anyone, because it is (almost) utterly
without redeeming social content.
BART IN DARKNESS
4:30 AM.
It's bleak and cold and dark outside. A chill mist, almost like snow.
But I'm bundled up head to toe, every inch of me that could be covered, was.
I wore a hooded sweat shirt, gloves only slightly less thick than I could
have used in a boxing ring, thick sweat pants tucked into heavier socks, as
well as some natural insulation developed by an addiction for Christmas
fruitcakes. (BTW, did you see that article about the fruitcake toss?
Apparently some unbelievers were throwing fruitcakes like frisbys-hey, throw
them my way!)
It was exercise time, forty-five minutes a day for health, one of the few
pleasures that leaves you better off afterwards than when you began.
It was peaceful, (everyone sensible being home in bed) the sheer joy of
solitude.
Einstein said he hated solitude when he was young, but grew to regard it as
a luxury when old; I always knew the genius and I had something in common,
besides an ability to get lost in our own neighborhoods.
Alone does not always mean lonely; alone also means all-one.without
distractions.
It is nice being able to think exactly what I want, and nobody reminding me
to take out the garbage, or to drive faster (honk, honk!). The other day I
was on the freeway at the speed limit, in the fast lane because there was a
left exit coming up, and some one with a fondness for emotional violence
came up shrieking his horn at me. Normally I would just scoot over and let
the mentally short-changed one pass, but the exit was coming up soon, and it
gets scary changing lanes, and, well, okay,  I get stubborn sometimes-so I
ignored him, and he finally zips around me on the right, exercising his
middle finger as he does-and just then a cop turns on his siren. I slowed
down, disbelieving. Was it going to be a high-speed pursuit? No, there they
go, over to the side-hah! Pulled his sorry bleep-censored right over. How
very nice.  I considered waving at him as I drove by, but decided not to
push my luck.
Shuffle shuffle shuffle.
I was out taking my little short steps, just slightly faster than walking.
 Beside me was the Fremont channel, a casual semi-river beginning in the
hills, running twelve miles slowly past Union City, all the way down to the
sea. I will not travel all the way, of course, that would be presumptuous.
We will just keep company for a while.
A ripple and splash as something heavy-bodied moves in the dark water beside
me.
A white shark, perhaps.
Well, it could be-- an enormous beast, rough-skinned, majestic, and with
special qualities, like a poor sense of direction, a liking for the shallows
(it is maybe 12 inches in the deep parts) and the ability to breathe fresh
water.
Or maybe a trout as big as your hand.
Walk for a while-- run a little bit-- walk for a while. Mostly the latter.
I don't have my Tai chi sword with me. Usually I bring it along and practice
swooshing it through the air, terrifying the local mosquitoes.
But I forgot it today.
Last thing my wife said, was watch out for skunks. There are a couple
families of them in the neighborhood, and sometimes there are tense moments.
 (Oh,yes, Gloria is up already, who do you think got me started on being up
early in the first place? Ms. Rise and shine, it's nearly five o'clock
herself!)
Shuff shuff shuff.
So much going on..
Did you see on TV when Nancy Pelosi officially became the Speaker of the
House? Wow, what a moment. The person who introduced her almost lost it,
choking up as she said the incredible words.  In the 200 plus years of our
history, never a woman in that power position, just two steps short of the
Presidency-a shame that it took so long-
but how wonderful when it finally did.
And one of the first things Speaker Pelosi will do is bring forward the Stem
Cell Research Enhancement Act.
Wow.
Pause for some half-pushups. I don't do the full ones anymore, left shoulder
gives trouble, but half a pushup is better than none.
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act is a little like that half-pushup. It
contains no guaranteed funding, takes no position on Somatic Cell Nuclear
Transfer, and only allows federal funding for new stem cell lines under very
carefully limited circumstances-but half a step forward is way better than
none.
It is vital that it be done now.
Do you realize that roughly a third of the National Institutes for Health
funding now goes to bio-terror stuff? This is why scientists in cure-related
fields have access to less and less money, although the total NIH funding is
about the same. If federal dollars are spent on more and better ways to kill
people, that is less money there to heal them.
How strange that some folks think it is just fine to spend hundreds of
billions of dollars developing tools with no purpose except to kill
people-but it offends them to spend money on embryonic stem cell research.
Don't kill those cells!
The Stem Cell Research Act establishes that it is okay for the federal
government to spend money on new stem cell lines. Vital.
Shuffle shuffle shuffle.I hope I don't see any skunks.
I pause and stretch, bending over carefully from the waist, rear end pointed
to the side of the road, to avoid awkward confrontations with other early
risers. Not the most elegant view of a person.
Keep knees bent slightly, avoid stress on lower back, I remind myself.
The blood flow is increased already, the hamstrings gradually unloosen, the
backs of the knees, the ankles.
Like the CIRM getting ready. The two years since the California Institute
for Regenerative Medicine began have been crammed with activity, made more
difficult by the lawsuits the opposition sought to sink us with-but they
have not succeeded, and they will not.
"We've devoted nearly two years to building the infrastructure necessary to
support a robust scientific grant-making program," said Dr. Arlene Y. Chiu,
CIRM's Director of Scientific Activities.
"CIRM's governing board, the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee
(ICOC), authorized up to $80 million to support as many as 25 Comprehensive
Grants (all for embryonic stem cell research-dr) over four years.  The
applications will be reviewed by a committee of scientific experts from
outside California and patient advocates from the ICOC.  The committee will
evaluate the scientific merit of each proposal and make funding
recommendations to the full ICOC, which has final authority to award CIRM
grants.   Grant recipients are scheduled to be decided at the ICOC's March
2007 meeting."-www.cirm.ca.gov, November 14, 2006
$80 million, all going to embryonic stem cell research.
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle--oops.
Black and white elegance, bobbling along, moving into a patch of moonlight.
Oh-no, oh-no, oh-no.
I stop.
The skunk stops.
I wait.
So does he/she/it.
Narrow fox-like head turns back, regards me. Small eyes glitter.
The need to breathe goes away.
Slowly, with an appearance of absolute power, like a gorilla with a machine
gun, the skunk walks off the road. Tiny thing, can't weigh more than a pound
or two, but it knows who is in control.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I move forward.
Hissssss.
A wave of fear shoots over me-did I just get squirted, am I going to need a
tomato juice bath, will Gloria ever let me in the house again?
But the hiss was just a warning, coming from the non-stinky end of the
skunk.
I wait till I am (hopefully) out of range and then take off like a senior
citizen lightning bolt
Almost home.
Before me the trail dips, going under a bridge across the river.
The bridge is for BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, California's high-speed
rail system.
I hear a roar in the distance, feel vibrations in the ground.
The shiny silver BART train is coming, very fast, hurtling through the
night.
So I stop, rather than run along the path, which goes underneath the
on-coming train.
Granted, the odds are not high the train will tip over just as I jog
underneath.
 But I see no virtue in tempting fate, and so I pause-and the BART train
stops right on the bridge, over the path.
A shiny silver miracle, California's bullet train.
I wait: fifteen seconds, maybe twenty. This is one of those delays
Bart-riders squawk about, the occasional half-minute pause when the
ninety-mile an hour progress stops. Nothing like the delays on the
artery-clogged freeways; but it is just fun to complain.
Personally, I love BART, a comfortable, even luxurious way to travel. No
traffic jams, no freeway honkers, just kick back and read a book, or snooze
until your station.
Nowadays, everybody takes BART for granted. It is just something wonderful,
and there. We take it for granted.
But I remember as a kid, seeing expensive billboards talking trash about
BART-conservative forces opposed that as well-but there were also dedicated
folks whose names I will never know. They kept fighting, and so we have
BART.
And so it will be with stem cell research. There will come a day when people
complain about having to wait for their stem cell treatment-what kind of
co-pay do you have, oh, I know, it's terrible, gripe gripe gripe--
 I take off running: really motoring this time, the thought of a train
tipping over on top of me lends urgency to my size 12's.
There is a tremendous roar over my head.
As BART moves on.
And I go home.
By Don C. Reed, Chair, Californians for Cures, www.stemcellbattles.com.

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