Researchers await federal stem cell funds

For eight years, scientists have taken extreme measures to continue researching how embryonic stem cells could treat illness and injury.

Beset by opponents who found their work immoral and by a restriction on federal funding, researchers had to scrupulously avoid commingling government grants with private donations, little of which flowed to Georgia scientists.

Researchers in some states set up free-standing labs. Others stopped using the same microscope for federally approved research and for analyzing new stem cell lines. They weren’t even sure they could use their university e-mail accounts to discuss their findings.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is expected to change the government’s course on this issue, reversing an order by his predecessor, George W. Bush, that prevented scientists from receiving federal money for studying embryonic stem cell lines derived after August 2001.

Obama’s order will allow federal agencies to pay for research that proponents say could find effective treatments for diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and a host of other debilitating medical conditions.

The move fulfills Obama’s campaign promise to separate politics from science, said Aaron Levine, an assistant professor of public policy at Georgia Tech.

Levine has written extensively about the conflict over the morality of human embryo research.

“It’s not going to be a short-term fix, necessarily,” Levine said Saturday. “But some new lines of research may open up.”

Most important, he said, lifting the funding restriction will allow scientists to “push their research toward the most promising technologies rather than the most politically expedient technologies.”

The potential use of embryonic stem cells to create replacement human tissue has always been controversial. Days-old embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells; they typically are culled from unused embryos that fertility clinics would otherwise discard.

Religious conservatives reacted strongly as word of Obama’s decision leaked out Friday. In an interview with The New York Times, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called it “a slap in the face to Americans who believe in the dignity of all human life.”

Bush’s 2001 order allowed federally sponsored research to continue on lines of embryonic stem cells created before Aug. 9, 2001. But only 21 such lines exist, and Levine and others said many lines can’t be used in human studies. Scientists at Georgia universities have used only stem cell lines created before Bush’s 2001 restriction.

Georgia universities are strongly interested in pursuing new stem cell research, said Dr. Robert Taylor, the acting director of cardiology at Emory University who conducts research in regenerative medicine. Taylor’s research involves cells collected from “peripheral” blood rather than from embryonic sources.

At the University of Georgia, faculty members at the Regenerative Bioscience Center have received federal grants to work with the old stem cell lines. Georgia Tech and the Medical College of Georgia also have continuing research into stem cell use.

Obama’s decision changes the very nature of the research, Taylor said.

“This would open up a lot of opportunity,” Taylor said. Because of the funding restrictions, he said, “the United States is drifting behind other countries.”

New funding could come from the government’s economic stimulus package.

The National Institutes of Health said recently that it will award at least $200 million in grants for stem cell research as part of the stimulus program; at the time of that announcement, however, the old restrictions remained in place.

Obama’s announcement closely follows news that federal officials had approved the first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered a spinal cord injury. The study, by Geron Corp., is to begin this summer.

By Alan Judd The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday, March 08, 2009
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Past SEEdebate featured articles on Stem Cell research funding and debate:

Bush vetoes stem cell bill a 2nd time: He urges research not using embryos
Scientists create embryo from 3 parents
Massachusetts Proposes Stem Cell Research Grants
Advance on Stem Cells Equalizes Debate

There are others, try doing your own search within our site if you are interested in finding more.

Some discussion ideas:
How do you feel about stem cell research?

What are the ethical dilemmas that researchers and scientists face when working in this field?

Do you think stem cell research should be funded by public money (money from the government)?
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