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The Long Beach Press Telegram Article Last Updated: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 11:59:26 PM MST Scientists to discuss collaboration on stem cells Health: Multinational effort will organize studies, newspaper says. By Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- Prominent scientists will gather next week in London to discuss a multinational effort to coordinate stem cell research, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The creation of a global consortium of private and government agencies for stem cells could be modeled after the Human Genome Project, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Delegates from several countries, including the United States, have been invited to preliminary talks Tuesday. The host will be Sir George Radda, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, the British equivalent of the National Institutes of Health, the paper reported. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the council said he couldn't confirm the meeting but would know more in coming days. Stem cells are remarkably versatile cells that can mature into the specialized cells that make up everything in the body from key organ tissue to the nervous system. Researchers hope to use stem cells to cure and treat an array of illnesses and injuries, including diabetes, Parkinson's disease and nervous system injuries in the spine and brain. But clinical treatments are still years away, and ethical questions abound. The new field has been hampered by objections that stem cell experiments require the destruction of human embryos. And the Bush administration has limited the number of stem cell colonies that are eligible for federal funding. The London talks are being championed by Roger Pedersen, a former UC San Francisco stem cell scientist who moved to England for its looser regulations. "No one country has all the resources necessary to put together any clinical therapies from stem cells," Pedersen told the paper. "We've got to do it cooperatively." Pedersen said he wanted to conduct human clinical tests of stem-cell therapy within five years if those trials go well, he said, treatments could be ready in about 10 years. SOURCE: The Long Beach Press Telegram http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204%257E21474%257E1084353, 00.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn