Stem Cell Research Growing Again

Stem cell research, benefiting from technological and political changes, is poised to grow rapidly, scientists say.

Image: Bilderberg/Aurora Photos

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In the embryonic stem-cell wars, the microscopic building blocks of human life have been fodder for presidential politics, pro- and anti-evolutionists, multibillion-dollar state ballot initiatives, and squabbles among Hollywood celebrities—and even members of Ronald Reagan's family.

Now it appears that embryonic stem cells may be nearly ready for something altogether different: treating patients.

This is according to a briefing after the first-ever meeting of the Global Forum of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, recently in Half Moon Bay, California, about 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Since James Thompson of the University of Wisconsin-first isolated embryonic stem cells in 1998, the conversation among researchers has been have been more about promise than reality.

The promise is that stem cells, which can grow into any body part, could be used to replace or regenerate damaged cells in the heart, brain, liver, skin, and spine. But the reality is that the science of understanding how these cells develop and how they might be used in patients has been frustratingly difficult.

Politics hasn't helped. In 2001, President Bush restricted federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells, setting back efforts in the U.S. for years while world-class programs developed in Europe, China, and elsewhere.

Bush has vetoed an attempt to lift the funding curbs, though a new era is poised to begin with whichever presidential candidate is elected this November. All three remaining major-party candidates—Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain—have said they favor lifting the Bush restrictions.

Now Robert Klein—director of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which oversees the state's stem cell initiative—is saying that fresh heart and liver cells derived from stem cells may be ready for testing in humans within 18 months.

Safety tests for using stem cells to treat paralysis could start within a year, he told the San Jose Mercury News after the meeting in Half Moon Bay; tests for stem cells that replace damaged retinas could start in two years.

Later will come stem-cell trials to replace bone and cartilage and to better target bone-marrow transplants to treat leukemia.

Scientists are poised right now to use stem cells to test for toxicity in drugs being developed, said Klein. Researchers hope to replace animal testing, which is notoriously unreliable, with human stem cells to determine whether or not a candidate medication is safe.

Klein was the leading figure in the effort to persuade California to approve a $3 billion, 10-year state-bond initiative to fund stem-cell research. (Bush's restrictions apply only to federal funds.) The institute that Klein now runs is charged with distributing the money raised each year from the sale of those bonds.

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