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Excerpts from article in : Los Angeles Times August 11, 2001 Saturday Home Edition SECTION: Part A; Part 1; Page 1; National Desk HEADLINE:Stem Cell Decision Doesn't Quell Debate; Science: Uncertain but resolved researchers gear up to start limited tests. Senate hearing planned. BYLINE: AARON ZITNER, EDWIN CHEN " Facing a skeptical research community, the Bush administration argued Friday that the president's plan to fund research using human embryo stem cells would propel scientists on a course to finding new treatments for disease. But on the day after Bush devoted a nationally televised address to the research, many scientists and patient advocacy groups said they could not yet endorse his plan. They questioned Bush's decision to limit federal funding to experiments using only existing stem cells already taken from only 60 or so embryos. "There's so much more we need to know about this," said Lawrence Soler, who led a coalition of patient advocacy groups that lobbied for federal funding. "We need to know if these cells that the president has identified are robust and useful. Until they can look at these cells, scientists are going to remain skeptical." "... Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson acknowledged that Bush's decision had spawned questions about whether the 60 sets of stem cells, known as cell lines, "are adequate to conduct effective research. The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is a resounding yes." "... The 60 cell lines that can be used in federally funded experiments have already been extracted from embryos, using private money... " Health Officials Start on Registry " Thompson and officials at the National Institutes of Health said Friday that they had begun building a registry of the 60 cell lines, which will take several weeks. Researchers will have to form alliances with owners of the cell lines before they can submit grant applications to the NIH. And the NIH has no power to compel owners of the cell lines to work with any researcher. Thompson and NIH officials released few of the key details about the cell lines that many scientists want to know. They said that many of the cell lines had been created at private companies and that they did not have authority to release proprietary information about many of the lines. Officials said they could only reveal the source of 17 of the 60 cell lines. They came from three businesses: WiCell Research Institute Inc. of Wisconsin, and ES Cell International and BresaGen Ltd., both of Australia. They said the cell lines met several ethical and scientific benchmarks. The cell lines, they said, were created under strong ethics guidelines: All the embryos involved were donated by fertility patients, who often create more than they need in the course of trying to become pregnant and who sometimes discard the surplus embryos. The patients signed informed consent forms before donating their embryos, and none was paid for the embryos. About half of the cell lines were created in the United States and the others in Australia, India, Israel and Sweden." " But scientists and research advocates said they need to know much more, including the conditions under which the cell lines were created, their ability to reproduce and whether they could truly grow into a wide range of body tissues. "... The scientist who first isolated stem cells in human embryos, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, said: "If there truly are 60 cell lines available, then I do feel the field will get a good start from this. But until more is known about them, I can't say. . . . Sixty is a pretty reasonable number." "... Some researchers noted that obtaining stem cells from private companies has been a frustrating experience. Private firms often ask for certain rights to discoveries made with their cells, but researchers and universities do not want to sign away the power to control or profit from their work. HHS Secretary Thompson acknowledged the problem but said it could be overcome. "We still have some very strong proprietary and patent issues to work through, but I have great confidence that they can be addressed." He said he talked Thursday to a nonprofit business that owns rights to five cell lines and was encouraged by its willingness to cooperate with researchers..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn