An Easy Cell

by Clifford Johnson     Department: Health & Life Sciences

Just in case this is the only science-oriented blog you read (bless you), and in case you're not keeping up with the news I'm taking this opportunity to point you to the new development in stem cell research announced today by two research groups. They've managed to generate stem cells (cells that can in principle be encouraged to develop into any cell type) from human skin. This is significant  for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that  it may lead to a path for stem cell research (and the science and medicine that could lead to) that does not need to use embryos for source material. This could enable researchers in the USA access to more resources, because - as you may recall - the current administration managed to conflate stem cell research with other issues (such as religious objections to abortion) and forbid the use of federal funds for all embryonic stem cell research that did not involve material derived from a list of existing sources (sources that most researchers I've ever spoken to see to agree have been of very limited use). This set US-based research back quite a bit, as compared to the rest of the world, although there are ways around it by finding other funds (In 2004, New Jersey and California, you may recall, recognized the value of staying competitive in this are and so found a democratic way of doing so... other states soon followed with measures of their own.).

The result today was based on independent papers from two independent groups (one at Kyoto University and the other at Wisconsin-Madison), and for more description you can find an AP story here or here. Murky moral issues aside, what does it mean? Well,  it is very early in the game to get carried away. First of all, even if we could freely produce stem cells from any source we like, there's a lot more to be understood about what to do with them to develop all the science and medicine that they might promise. Before that, there's a major obstruction - As I understand it, the methods used to get this recent result involve processes (to do with the genes involved, and the cell-targeting transport/delivery mechanisms engaged) that are almost certainly rather injurious to health, and so new methods new to be found that don't have this limitation. So right now it is to be considered a "proof of concept", and not an end in itself. In the meantime, lots of other researchers around the world will continue trying to make advances using the existing methods and sources, until this new technique takes its place in the spectrum of tools available to researchers to do their work.

I recommend two NPR conversations for more on this. One is with their science correspondents, Joe Palca, on Morning Edition, and you can listen to it here. The other is with two commentators on the "ethical" implications (Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, and Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), which took place on All Things Considered, and you can listen to it here. (Update: NPR's website has an excellent  time-line of the debate about stem cell research (from a USA perspective) here.)

This is definitely  an issue that will continue to be of great interest and importance. (And this is before the science has even come close to delivering on its evident therapeutic promise!)

-cvj

Tags: biology, stem cell research

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