Debate Over Stem Cells Continues
When President-elect Barack Obama takes office this month, he’ll bring change, including an executive order to remove restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
It is a change many scientists, patients and families with members who suffer from genetic diseases here in Central Massachusetts and nationwide are likely to applaud, but there are others, including the Worcester Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church who do not want to see restrictions lifted.
New Policy
Under President George W. Bush, federal funding has been limited to embryonic stem cell lines that were already created before Aug. 9, 2001, but Obama has said several times he plans to lift that restriction.
The president-elect plans to allow researchers to harvest stem cells from embryos stored in fertility clinics, which parents no longer want or that the clinic would destroy after a certain amount of time. The parents would have to donate the unwanted embryos for them to be used, Obama said.
Local scientists and biotech industry representatives are definitely looking forward to the change.
“The changes would allow researchers that accept National Institutes of Health money to create or access other embryonic stem cells. With more lines available, it could accelerate research potential in lines that may actually have therapeutic value,” said Dr. Terence R. Flotte, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the UMass Medical School in Worcester.
Flotte is investigating the use of gene therapy for genetic diseases that affect children, such as cystic fibrosis. In 1995, Flotte and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland became the first to use the adeno-associated virus, or AAV, as a vehicle to deliver corrective genes to targeted sites in the body, including the damaged airways of adults with cystic fibrosis.
“One of the key issues is the idiosyncratic nature of each line of stem cells, and some by nature will be better at regenerating brain tissues or spinal or liver or heart tissues,” he said. With more lines available, there are more chances to find cures with the variations in regenerative characteristics.
Robert Coughlin, head of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said the most important aspect of lifting the restrictions is not that it will benefit the biotechnology industry.
“More importantly, it will benefit the patients that are waiting for cures,” he said. “Look at the major role some of the embryonic stem cells are playing in early stage research right now. Any movement to lift the restrictions and add cell lines will be helpful.”
But not everyone sees the change as helpful.
Raymond Delisle, spokesman for the Worcester Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, said the church and others don’t want to see the restrictions eased.
“It’s not just a group of cells, they’re unique human beings in an embryonic state,” he said. “People will say that these embryos would just be destroyed anyway.
That’s the end justifying the means because some good might come of the research. But it’s an intrinsic wrong no matter how much good comes from the research.”
Delisle said that with the many research strides made using adult stem cells, which is ethically supportable and reaping returns for investors, it isn’t necessary to use embryonic stem cells for research.
He pointed to a local scientist and company, Dr. Tanja Dominko of CellThera Inc., here in Worcester, as a prime example of important adult stem cell research.
The company is working on finding the right formula to trigger the memories of adult stem cells to regenerate themselves when injured.
“It (adult stem cell research) is benefiting society in both short-tern and long-term, and is proving to be good investment for public and private funds,” Delisle said.
January will bring a lot of changes, including the possibility that more embryonic stem cell research can go forward, and it remains to be seen how much new research will be possible and how quickly it will reach patients.
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