 |
 |
The source of this article is the Chicago Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/5j5ve Stem cell hopes in private hands Alternatives to federal funds sought By Ronald Kotulak Tribune science reporter Published October 25, 2004 Frustrated that a lack of federal money is holding back embryonic stem cell research, several of Chicago's premier medical institutions are scrambling to find private funding to jump-start a field scientists here believe holds great promise for cures. A new field of research with such vast potential typically would be given top priority by the National Institutes of Health, which funds the overwhelming majority of the nation's basic medical research. But with President Bush putting most federal funding off limits over ethical concerns, just $24.8 million of the NIH's $28 billion budget was spent on human embryonic stem cell research last year--less than 1 percent and far too little to enable the research to flourish, scientists say. The recent death of actor Christopher Reeve, who became a vocal advocate of stem cell research after he was paralyzed in a riding accident, has intensified the controversy over the funding issue. It has also surfaced in the presidential debates, with Sen. John Kerry joining most of the nation's major medical and scientific organizations in opposing Bush's policy. To fill the vacuum, Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are among an increasing number of major research centers across the country trying to raise money from outside sources to conduct their experiments. Medical centers often seek private money for research, but such funds are typically provided to supplement major NIH grants. "The science would tell you that they should be funding this area," said Dr. John Kessler, chief of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "But this is virtually unique that there's an area as exciting as this where the government says point-blank you cannot use any of your [NIH] funds to study it." Northwestern is planning to use private money to establish a multidisciplinary stem cell center, and the U. of C. is in the process of recruiting two new stem cell researchers with non-government resources. Children's Memorial is seeking private funds to establish laboratories and hire more scientists to work with stem cells. Hospital facilities Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Feinberg medical school are also working together to set up privately funded hospital facilities where patients can be treated with any new therapies derived from stem cell research. Representatives of the institutions trying to raise private stem cell funding declined to discuss how much money is being sought or from which private donors, saying the negotiations were still in the early stages. Besides some private philanthropies, a few foundations, like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, have become major funders of private stem cell research. The diabetes foundation spent $8 million last year on such research and plans to spend more in 2005, said Dr. Robert Goldstein, chief scientific director. "I've been talking to people in Chicago, and I'm anticipating requests for funds," Goldstein said, adding that he could not disclose pending requests. In placing limits on funding for stem cell research, Bush has said he wants to stop the destruction of human embryos for research and to prevent the possibility of cloning genetically identical humans. That, he said, could open the door to the horrors of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," where people were artificially produced. Scientists, however, are concerned that without the scientific and ethical oversight that comes along with NIH funding, privately funded research would be unregulated and some of it could be used to make human cloning more likely. "When you have any type of research that is funded privately, for whatever reason, that research may never be known by the public," said Dr. Mary Hendrix, chief of research at Children's Memorial. "So when you lose your transparency, you compromise public trust." Leaving Iowa Hendrix recently moved to Children's from the University of Iowa after that state's legislature passed a law banning a critical area of stem cell research. She brought 10 scientists from her Iowa lab with her. Now, she is involved in the effort to raise private funding. "It's frustrating for veteran scientists such as myself," she said. "It's demoralizing for our young scientists who are just coming into the field. Our greatest fear is that we worry about the next generation, those scientists who will replace us. They may decide not to be involved in this field. "And then to look at Europe, Asia and other parts of the world where the ability to do this research is really facilitated in many respects by government decisions, you're left with the feeling that we may lose our leadership role in certain areas of biomedical research." Stem cells are obtained from an embryo, a cluster of 100 to 200 cells that grow after an egg has been fertilized by a sperm. These cells theoretically can make all the different cell types of the human body, providing possible avenues for discovering cures for such diseases as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and of finding ways of making replacement body parts. People who object to stem cell research contend it is wrong to destroy an embryo, with its potential for life, in order to obtain its stem cells for science. They also condemn therapeutic cloning, which involves inserting the genes from one cell of a living person into an egg that has had its own genetic material removed. The cell is then coaxed into dividing to form an embryo. Stem cells obtained in this way contain the same genes as the person they were taken from, potentially making it possible to grow new organs that would not be subject to rejection. 60 stem cell lines In his 2001 edict, Bush said he would allow NIH to fund research only on 60 human embryonic stem cell lines that were already established at that time because the life-and-death decision had already been made by others. Bush also denied funding for therapeutic cloning and supports proposed legislation passed twice by the House of Representatives that would criminalize the procedure. "The president has not banned stem cell research in the private sector at all," NIH Director Elias Zerhouni said. "The limitation, though, is on the kinds of cells that you can use for federal funding. They are the ones already derived and have lost the potential for life before 2001." But less than a third of the lines approved by Bush are considered usable by scientists. Even those are of limited value because they do not contain any disease genes and do not represent the broad genetic makeup of the population. None of the lines is ever likely to be used to produce tissue or products for human use because they were grown with mouse feeder cells and may be contaminated with animal viruses. To overcome this barrier to developing human therapies, a number of research institutions are privately creating new stem cell lines that are believed to be free of contamination. Harvard University, for instance, which established a stem cell institute in April, has developed 17 new stem cell lines with funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Doug Melton, chairman of Harvard's molecular and cellular biology department, derived the lines. Dr. Yuri Verlinsky, director of the Chicago-based Reproductive Genetics Institute, has established 12 lines of stem cells from embryos containing genes for muscular dystrophy, Fragile X syndrome, thalassemia, Fanconi's anemia and other diseases, which are essential to studying genetic disorders. Under current restrictions, any research on stem cell lines not approved by NIH cannot involve the use of federal funds. Private stem cell research can be done in the same laboratory where NIH-funded research takes place as long as the private and federal monies are not mixed. Many institutions are building separate laboratories completely funded from private sources to avoid any mix-up. Losing ground Stem cell science was pioneered in the U.S., but the nation is losing ground to Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Israel, South Africa, Singapore and most western European nations, which actively encourage it. "[Bush's] policy is almost without precedent," said Northwestern's Kessler. "This is not a scientific policy. I frankly don't even believe that this is a policy born of morals or ethics. This is a political decision and a very unfortunate one. "It sets a precedent for the concept that people with political viewpoints can intervene in the scientific process. The Earth would still be flat if that kind of thinking had prevailed." Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn