By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
MADISON – State leaders reacted positively Tuesday to news of a breakthrough in stem cell technology by UW-Madison scientists that may eliminate ethical objections because it does not require the destruction of human embryos to create self-replicating cells.
Several said the advance – which came out of the lab run by stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson – could lead to new Badger State jobs in companies seeking to find news ways to treat disease.
Thomson’s team members said they were able to genetically reprogram human skin cells to create cells that are indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.
And R. Alta Charo, a UW-Madison professor of law and bioethics, said the discovery could be a game-changing event that may have far-reaching effects on the social dimensions of the ongoing controversy over embryonic stem cell research.
“This is a method for creating a stem cell line without ever having to work through, at any stage, an entity that is a viable embryo,” Charo said in a statement. “Therefore, you manage to avoid many of those debates with the right-to life community.”
Gov. Jim Doyle also praised the announcement. He said he is optimistic about the breakthrough, which he said underscores the need to build major research facilities in Wisconsin.
“I think everybody recognizes in the next five, 10, 15 years the face of medicine will change,” he said at a press conference. “It’s a great thing obviously to help with the research that will improve the lives of millions and millions of people in the world.”
Jim Leonhart, executive vice president of the state’s Biotechnology and Medical Device Association, said he was elated by the news.
“A significant social issue is on the verge of being resolved so that novel research on potential cures and tissue restoration can continue,” he said.
“We have always felt there was great potential in stem cell research. This is a great day because Wisconsin is once again demonstrating its leadership in this area.
“Now, if the political and legal constraints for researchers can be avoided, there will be more laboratories in our universities and companies that could use newly available lines to spur medical progress.”
Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, agreed that the UW-Madison breakthrough – which was backed up by a similar announcement Tuesday by scientists in Japan – may alter the stem cell research playing field and bring new jobs to the state.
“Human embryonic stem cell research has the potential to greatly improve the human condition, as well as contribute to the Wisconsin economy,” he said.
“It is also a standard-bearer for Wisconsin’s $5 billion biotechnology industry, which has demonstrated its global excellence and depth in many other fields. Once again, Wisconsin is leading the way.”
Still said the hopes the announcements will “go a long way to defusing the controversy surrounding increased federal funding for human embryonic stem cell search.”
But he said it does not mean scientists should or will abandon other types of stem cell research.
“As the Wisconsin Technology Council has noted in the past, adult stem cell research has demonstrated value over the past 40 years, just as research using 21 embryonic lines approved for federal funding in August 2001 has also yielded promising results.”
Still said it will be essential to compare and contrast results from these different techniques because important nuances and risks may surface.
The Tech Council president said he hopes President Bush will now revise his 2001 order so that federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research using the new protocol can be funded at effective levels.
“This is exciting news for Wisconsin, which is already the birthplace of stem cell research and now is the epicenter of a groundbreaking process,” Still said.
“We have lost valuable time in the race to understand embryonic stem cells, now is the time to catch up,” he said.
In his press conference Tuesday, Doyle said the breakthrough shows that Wisconsin has a “really, really significant opportunity to be at the center of what goes on in the world.”
Doyle said he is in favor of “going wherever the science leads us” and doesn’t think politicians should be making decisions on where it leads.
“If through this new breakthrough, and I’m sure the scientists involved … would tell everybody to be very cautious right now about trying to understand what all the implications are, but if it leads to a better and more practical and more economic way to conduct this research that will in fact improve people’s lives, then I think we should all be for it,” Doyle said.
Charo, one of the country’s leading bioethicists, said the Tuesday’s news could well redefine the political and ethical dynamics of the stem-cell debate because it alters the arguments surrounding both human embryonic stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning.
For ordinary embryonic stem cell research, it offers a means of obtaining pluripotent – or self replicating – cell lines from a non-embryonic source.
For cloning research, it offers a means to make customized, pluripotent cell lines without having to create an intermediate embryo that is a “clone” of an adult person, she said.
Charo said the discovery could remove objections from critics on both the right and left wings of the political spectrum.
To derive embryonic stem cells, it is necessary to remove critical cells from an embryo, resulting in its destruction. That triggers opposition from right-to-life critics of the research, who cite moral and ethical concerns.
The research has also generated opposition from some members of the women’s movement who object the use of stimulating drugs in women who agree to donate eggs for cloning research aimed at creating specialized embryonic stem cell lines.
She said the latest findings have the potential to render both of those objections moot, since the research showed that introducing four genes into cells derived from skin cells, called human fibroblasts, resulted in cells that essentially share all the features of embryonic stem cells – but without using or destroying embryos.
“It holds a great deal of promise for freeing this whole area of research from those two main sources of friction,” Charo said.
The discovery also creates questions about the future of government funding for traditional embryonic stem cell research, which in recent years has been a contentious political issue.
“It’s going to fuel those who call for preferential federal funding only for non-embryonic stem cell research and it will certainly complicate any efforts to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research at the federal level,” she said.
Twice, Congress has passed legislation to overturn the Bush administration policy on embryonic stem cell research and allow funding for research using any embryonic stem cell lines, not just those designated by the administration in 2001. Twice, the president has vetoed it.
“Any piece of research like this that suggests that we can get cell lines that are equally usable without having to go through an embryo in intermediate steps is going to undermine any effort on the part of Congress to overturn the Bush policy,” she said.
The latest discovery, however, is likely to suggest avenues of research that are already eligible for federal funding. Recently, the White House directed the National Institutes of Health to emphasize the funding of research that examines alternative means for obtaining pluripotent cell lines whose usefulness is comparable to that of human embryonic stem cells.
“No matter how well this new technique can be used for many of the disease-research and disease-treatment applications foreseen for embryonic stem cell and cloning research, however, calls for criminalization or wholesale de-funding of embryonic stem cell and cloning research are not warranted,” Charo said.
“Criminalizing any area of science, as opposed to merely regulating it, would be contrary to the political and constitutional traditions of academic and scientific freedom, as well as the historical spirit of inquiry that characterizes this country.”
Charo serves on several expert advisory boards of organizations with an interest in stem cell research, including CuresNow, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the International Society for Stem Cell Research and WiCell, as well as on the advisory board to the Wisconsin Stem Cell Research Program.
