Science

Cloning Still Holds Stem Cell Key, Say Leading Harvard Researchers

Stem cells produced through a breakthrough reprogramming procedure are promising, but it’s far too soon to abandon embryonic stem cells, say leading researchers in the biotech hub of Harvard University. Scientists say embryonic stem cells — also known as ESCs, and characterized by their incredible ability to become any other kind of cell — could […]

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Stem cells produced through a breakthrough reprogramming procedure are promising, but it's far too soon to abandon embryonic stem cells, say leading researchers in the biotech hub of Harvard University.

Scientists say embryonic stem cells -- also known as ESCs, and characterized by their incredible ability to become any other kind of cell -- could someday be used to regenerate limbs, replace failing tissue and treat now-incurable diseases. However, producing ESCs requires the destruction of week-old embryos -- a procedure that many social conservatives consider murder.

The resulting controversy has become part of the culture wars and prompted President Bush to deny federal funding for research on ESCs developed after August 2001 -- a decision that scientists say has stunted the development potentially life-saving therapies. Supporters of ESC research say such policies are also a form of murder.

Last month, researchers in Japan and the United States announced that by reprogramming adult skin cells with a few extra genes, they'd created a new form of stem cell that behaved like ESCs. The possibility of ESC-equivalents that didn't destroy embryos were greeted with relief. Finally, people could have the medical benefits of ESCs, but without ethical controversy.

However, the scientists themselves said that ESC research needed to continue. Stem cell experts warned that the new cells, which at this early stage in their refinement tend to turn cancerous, might not be a medical panacea. Every type of stem cell research, they said, needs to continue; each may have its own strengths and weaknesses, and insights generated in one area prove inaluable to other areas. Abandoning ESCs
-- which ESC opponents now say is scientifically justified -- could be disastrous.

I documented these cautions here on Wired Science; the prevailing sentiment among Harvard University researchers, reported today in the
Boston Globe, further reinforces that message.

But researchers at Harvard, viewed by many as the world's leading center of stem cell research with some 750 lead scientists at 119
laboratories in the Boston area, are worried that a stampede to the new technique is a gamble that medicine can ill afford to make.

Although new reprogramming techniques are all but certain to yield giant advances in researching disease, they remain far too dangerous for actual treatment, the scientists say. The so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS, made by the process may never be safe for humans, making it vital to maintain the pace of research on more controversial fronts.

"For doing basic research on human cells, IPS as a method has won -
it's huge," said Dr. George Q. Daley, a stem cell researcher at
Children's Hospital Boston. "But for the ultimate goal of getting cells into a patient, it's a lot less clear. These cells may never be useful for direct therapy."

Caution urged in new method for stem cells [Boston Globe]

Image: Cell Press

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