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Rao: There are two extreme viewpoints here. The most promising is providing cells for replacement therapy. There's been a lot of activity and companies have filed INDs (investigational new drug applications with the FDA). For example, Geron (is planning to file) an IND for spinal cord injury -- they have a cell derivation to repair damaged spinal cords. Other groups have focused on Parkinson's disease. Other groups have said that they can replace damaged heart cells. So diseases for which there's no other cure for, we can provide cells that were simply not available before. At least two other important pieces have been a boon for the developmental biologists or people who want to understand human development. It's been a black box between fertilization and early stages of embryonic development before you get to a fully formed fetus. We've never had a way to approach this, and now we do. We can study questions that have been of fundamental importance for which we simply had no tools. X chromosome inactivation, methylation and regulation of the genome, cancer regulation, how aging senescence and these properties of cells is regulating.... That's already yielded fruit, but it's not the excitement (the public is) looking for, they're looking for cures for disease. WN: If scientists recognize the public doesn't really understand more complicated uses for stem cells, they often emphasize the potential disease cures. Do you think that's dangerous and creates hype that might never be lived up to in the minds of the public? Rao: Yes, and I think it's not just the public that's to blame -- it's the scientists as well. The public understands these things, provided somebody takes the time to explain, but nobody has told the public how long it takes to bring a drug to market. Let's say we really had a breakthrough today -- it takes eight years to 10 years to go through an approval process before they can provide that product to the public. The FDA has said cells as therapy are also a drug and (need) the same sort of regulatory process as drugs, and we can't be promising people that this will happen next year or the year after, unless the regulations are changed. If you get money or support with false premises, there's always a backlash. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn