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BIO 2003 A reporter's notebook on the biotech industry's annual get-together SNIP http://www.reason.com/rb/rb062303.shtml Lunch With the Prez (6/24) SNIP "Also revealing was his oblique reference to the thorny issue of human embryonic stem cells and research cloning. "As men and women of science you have accepted a moral calling to improve lives and to save lives," he said. "That calling also requires a deep respect for the value of every life. Because even the most noble ends do not justify any means." Translation: Bush believes that embryos consisting of a hundred cells or so are babies, so researchers can't use cells taken from them to cure people of illnesses such as diabetes and Alzheimer's. " SNIP http://www.reason.com/rb/rb062403.shtml Policy Day (6/25) SNIP "Stem Cells and Cloning Update This panel, ably chaired by BIO's own in-house bioethicist Michael Werner, looked at where we stand today on the issue of using human embryonic stem cells. The first presenter was Michael Manganiello, a vice president from the national pro-stem cell research umbrella group, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR). "The work you do is at risk of being closed down by the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003," he passionately warned the assembled BIO members. Werner noted that President Bush, in his first ever speech to the nation in August 2001, limited federally funded research to only 64 stem cell lines. It turns out that only 11 are in fact available, and that's not enough. CEO Thomas Okarma of Geron Corp., which paid for the research that developed human embryonic stem cells, spoke next. Geron is working on seven different advanced cell types derived from embryonic stem cells, including islet cells for producing insulin for curing diabetes, neuronal cells for repairing damaged spinal cords, dopaminergic cells for replacing brain cells lost to Parkinson's disease, and cardiomyocytes for replacing tissues damaged by heart attacks. Okarma showed us a video of a mouse whose spinal cord had been damaged, but which could walk because it had been repaired using human neurons derived from embryonic stem cells. Okarma favors research in both adult and embryonic stem cells, but argues that only embryonic stem cells offer the possibility of large-scale clinical use. Why? Because, unlike adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells can be multiplied without limit. Okarma outlined how a line of embryonic stem cells might be used to treat thousands of people—first, patients would be chimerized (share cells from two different genetic sources) by transplanting bone marrow stem cells into them. This procedure could induce immunological tolerance so that when the neuronal stem cells are transplanted from the same genetic line of stem cells, the patients' bodies would not reject them. Such patients would not have to use immuno-suppressant drugs like other transplant patients must. Okarma boldly predicted that clinical trials for transplanting human embryonic stem cells in patients would begin within the next two years. Because embryonic stem cell research is under threat here in the United States, Geron has established a lab in the United Kingdom, where stem cell research is welcomed. Okarma did complain, however, that Geron didn't feel very welcome, because Britain's Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority took 18 months to approve the company's research proposals. In the meantime, Geron has used private funds to already begin deriving new embryonic stem cell lines at Stanford University. Lawrence Goldstein, a researcher from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, noted that a lot of the political pressure to ban stem cells comes from the fear that the cloning techniques used to produce them would also be used to produce a cloned baby. Goldstein complained that bioethicists love to talk about banning the precursors to any activity they think might be harmful. However, this is silly. "I could use a hammer to wage war on my fellow citizens, but we don't ban hammers," he noted. "A wise society penalizes the acts it wants to prohibit." If we went around banning the precursors to all types of undesirable activities, we would never get anything done. His conclusion was we should ban reproductive cloning while permitting cloning to produce therapeutic stem cells. " SNIP http://www.reason.com/rb/rb062503.shtml * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn