Posts tagged with ‘stem cells’
Last week, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) introduced a bill that would codify the bedrock bioethical safeguards for federally-funded human embryonic stem cell research. These provisions reflect the guidelines that have been in effect at the National Institutes of Health since last July and also align with the guidelines that the Center for American Progress recommended [...]
Frustrations over delays in reviewing stem cell lines are understandable, but eight years of Bush administration rules merely delayed the necessary ethics considerations.
News marks an important step in normalizing the field as a regulated scientific activity. It also speaks to the sometimes-unpredictable ways that experimentation can address sources of human suffering.
Stem cell science has advanced rapidly in China, but the field suffers from a lack of adequate regulation for clinical applications in the country. The time is ripe for international collaboration.
In his final column for Science Progress, Rick Weiss responded to critics of stem cell research who argue that injections of stem cells will never serve as treatments for certain chronic diseases. True enough, Weiss wrote, injections of stem cells are unlikely to serve as a treatment for conditions like Alzheimer’s:
Alzheimer’s, after all, affects such [...]
There is no reason for us to fear for our scientific advantage, but we should be resolute in cultivating U.S. research, development, and innovation.
In 2009, we saw a renewed engagement with ethical questions about how we regulate biotechnology, watched the conservative war on science continue on new fronts, and witnessed renewed commitments to grow U.S. prosperity with investments in science and technology.
Timeline: A Brief History of Stem Cell Research
One of our most popular features ever, this interactive timeline [...]
Eleven of the Bush-era human embryonic stem cell lines are of European origin. Of the 40 lines newly approved by the National Institutes of Health, at least 22 are of European origin. Five of the Bush lines are from two gamete donors, and six of the new Harvard University lines are from three donors.
A team [...]
Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould famously suggested that science and religion deal with non-overlapping areas of knowledge. The idea is useful for quelling debates about creationism, but it’s a mistake when developing public policy for the life sciences.
The National Institutes of Health have added 27 more human embryonic stem cell lines to the 13 approved two weeks ago. These new lines come from Harvard University and have some interesting stipulations attached to them that illustrate the diligence and ethical seriousness that the NIH has brought to the approval process.
Harvard submitted 28 lines [...]
Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health approved 13 new embryonic stem cell lines according to the rigorous ethical guidelines that went into effect July 7th. The lines will now be eligible for use in federally funded research. The 15-point rules include requirements that cells must be derived with private funds from embryos created solely for [...]
One of the less attractive features of the political debate about human embryonic stem cells has been a tone of triumphalism when one side or the other can register a “victory.”
Two of the Nobel Prize winners announced yesterday for Medicine or Physiology have something in common besides their groundbreaking work on how cells copy chromosomes. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider both served on presidential bioethics commissions. Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, was a member of the George W. Bush President’s [...]
Joking that he is eager to grow a pair of crab claws, Stephen Colbert asked National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins last night what’s taking so long with stem cell research. In response to the Colbert Report host, Collins presented a smart example of how we need to make sure that we get stem [...]
The National Institutes of Health announced the launch of a new website this morning where researchers can submit approval requests for human embryonic stem cell lines. Accepted lines will be eligible for use in federally funded research.
The site is the next step in the implementation of the Obama administration’s stem cell policy, announced in March, [...]
New guidelines from the NIH will let researchers expand on important research, and, presumably, allow them to stop color-coding equipment paid for by different funding sources.
It turns out that induced pluripotent stem cells are more similar to embryonic stem cells than previously thought—at least in mice. Although iPS cells are not completely identical to embryonic stem cells, two teams of Chinese scientists have been able to demonstrate that reprogrammed cells introduced into an early-stage embryo, or blastocyst, can grow into [...]
Embryonic stem cell research is good science, and it needs to be part of our federally funded biomedical research enterprise if the United States is to retain its status as a global scientific leader. That’s why it must be conducted responsibly and ethically.
Demographic changes in recent decades are thinning out conservative views on “culture war” issues such as stem cell research, according to a new report from the Progressive Studies Program at the Center for American Progress. Among the findings: Public support for embryonic stem cell research is on the rise, as CAP Senior Fellow Ruy Texeria [...]
Researchers at Newcastle University in England have pushed cell reprogramming into uncharted bioethical territory, claiming to have transformed stem cells into human sperm. Reports in the British press from last week indicated that the work is intended as a treatment for male infertility, but the possibility of generating gametes from other adult cells raises a [...]
Human embryonic stem cell research has been embroiled in political controversy for much of its short existence. Now, at last, we have a policy with ethical and scientific authority.
After eight years of doing research (in the words of the former NIH director), with one hand tied behind their backs, scientists now have ethical guidelines for embryonic stem cell research that will channel federal support to the science that makes the United States a leader in regenerative medicine.
Last week, the White House sent letters to the members of the President’s Council on Bioethics informing them that their services were no longer needed. According to a report today from Nicholas Wade in The New York Times, a spokesperson said that the mandate of a new council would be to offer “practical policy options,” [...]
Stem cell research might need to be the tortoise to gene therapy’s hare. In the most recent issue of Science, James M. Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania, cautions stem cell research advocates to avoid the hype surrounding much work in the field (sub’s required). Wilson understands first-hand the pitfalls of proceeding too quickly with [...]
Using specially engineered proteins instead of DNA to coax mice cells back into an embryonic state is promising, but doesn’t resolve many potential problems. For regenerative medicine research in humans, embryonic stem cells remain the gold standard.
The latest in cell reprogramming research is that scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California have created induced cells into an embryonic state using proteins instead of genes. The study involves mouse cells.
The process, reported in Cell Stem Cell, points towards a method of creating pluripotent cells without the significant risk of [...]
The new rules on embryonic stem cell research weigh ethical considerations and sound science. Now that’s progressive.
The lone star state has been in the scientific spotlight for its school board decisions on the teaching of evolution in public classrooms, but it’s also a focus of the next round of arguments over human embryonic stem cell research.
On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that the state Senate Finance Committee passed a budget bill [...]
Injections of stem cells into the brain may not offer a great treatment for Alzheimer’s, but human embryonic stem cells may yet provide the information that scientists need to find a cure for this devastating disease.
Yesterday, the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, released a statement authored by members of the President’s Council on Bioethics critiquing the Obama administration’s stem cell policy. [Clarification: The statement appeared on the Center's Bioethics Forum, but does not represent the position of the Hastings Center itself, nor does publication there represent an endorsement of [...]
Although we are still celebrating President Obama’s executive order on stem cell research, it’s important to remember that the policy change was proceeded by new research involving the creation of virus-free induced pluripotent cells. The discovery came courtesy of Rudolf Jaenisch’s team at the Whitehead institute.
Publishing their research in the journal Cell, the group described [...]
Stem cell policy just caught up with research, and SP contributor and CAP Research Assistant Michael Rugnetta outlines how to move forward with dicussions on how to to conduct ethical research involving human embryonic stem cells at the Huffington Post. From his op-ed:
What the Department of Health and Human Services should do is take the extra step [...]
CAP Senior Fellow and SP Editor-in-Chief Jonathan D. Moreno explains the significance of President Obama rescinding the limits on human embryonic stem cell research put in place by George W. Bush, after the jump:
Since the isolation of human embryonic stem cells, or hESCs, in 1998 (see the timeline: A Brief History of Stem Cell Research), scientists around the country have made significant strides laying the groundwork for clinical treatments. In January, the FDA approved the first clinical trial for a potential therapy, a treatment for spinal cord injuries. [...]
With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama today erased the Bush administration’s eight-year-old restrictions on federal funding of research involving human embryonic stem cells, reaffirming his commitment to evidence and biomedical hope over his predecessor’s ideological distortion of science.
When President Obama signs an executive order reversing Bush’s policy on Monday, it will help the United States retain and reclaim worldwide leadership in the fast-moving and promising field of regenerative medicine.
Jake Tapper, Brian Hartman and Lisa Stark report:
ABC News has learned that on Monday morning President Obama will hold an event at the White House in which he signs an executive order overturning the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Various groups have been clamoring for this announcement since innauguration day, when the [...]
Canadian researchers announced Sunday that they have developed a new way to transform human skin cells into cells that are apparently equivalent to embryonic stem cells. The work points to a day when scientists may be able to make personalized, therapeutic human embryonic stem cells for patients without having to destroy embryos in the process [...]
A recent article published in PLoS Medicine reported that human fetal neural stem cell injections used to treat the neurodegenerative disorder ataxia telangiectasia in an Israeli boy caused a multifocal brain tumor four years after his first injection. While it is unfortunate that the stem cell treatment caused such tragic medical complications for the boy, [...]
A small group of moderate Republican Congress members, according to CNN.
Human embryonic stem cell research may be the path to remarkable disease treatments and cures in the near future. While it is important to be realistic about the science and resist overly optimistic expectations that stem cells are a panacea, lifting the ban on federal support of human embryonic stem cell research should be at [...]
The Senate is doubling down on the House proposal to support biomedical research and innovation with the recovery and reinvestment package—and then some. The Senate version of the stimulus bill originally provided $3.5 billion in funds for the National Institutes of Health (similar to the House version), but an amendment (SA 178), cosponsored by Sens. [...]
President Obama’s pledge that his administration will “restore science to its rightful place” is already echoing through several significant policies that undo years of Bush-era antiscientific partisanship. Last week, he lifted the “global gag rule“; today he will direct the EPA to grant California its long-delayed emissions waiver; later this week it’s expected that he [...]
Andrew Pollack at The New York Times reports that biotech company Geron has won approval for its Phase I trial of a hESC-derived therapy, which will treat spinal cord injuries:
Geron’s trial will involve 8 to 10 people with severe spinal cord injuries. The cells will be injected into the spinal cord at the injury site [...]
The stories of research involving human embryonic stem cells and the policy governing that work are intertwined and stretch back into the mid-1970s. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, discussions began about how to conduct ethical research on human fetal tissue. Since that time, scientists have made great strides—most notable the [...]
Next week is bookended by science policy events at CAP: innovation and patent reform on Monday and stem cells on Friday, with the release of the new report: “A Life Sciences Crucible: Stem Cell Science and Innovation Done Responsibly and Ethically.”
Here’s a look back at the most popular features we ran in the past year. Some of them dealt with major controversies over political interference with science at the Environmental Protection Agency, the teaching of creationism, and access to reproductive health services. Others tackled challenges of a networked world, or considered how policy can better harness the talents of a burgeoning scientific workforce.
In the wake of the Bush administration’s policies, we will have the political space to craft a pro-research stand that simultaneously highlights the need for consistent and enforceable regulation, for hope without hype, and for developing human biotechnologies according to principles of social justice and human rights.
Rick Weiss outlines a framework for a new federal policy that supports funding human embryonic stem cell research over on the CAP website. He writes that within the first week of taking office, President Obama “should call upon the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to devise a plan for dismantling the current, overly restrictive Bush administration policy on the funding of human embryonic stem cell research.”
At the end of last week, Reuters reported that the European Patent Office issued its final ruling rejecting a patent application for the stem cell technology based on the work of James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin. Filed in 1995 by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the patent, according to the EPO release “describes a method for obtaining embryonic stem cell cultures from primates, including humans.”
Bioconservatives are wasting no time and getting right down to business misrepresenting both progressive approaches to and public opinion on key science policy issues like stem cell research. But a majority of the American public supports embryonic stem cell research, so suggesting that moving away from the Bush administration’s policy would “force” taxpayers to support the science is misinformed.
Researchers are eager to see the new administration move away from President Bush’s policies on human embryonic stem cell research funding. But what will it take to get to the first clinical trials?
The international community is developing policies that support embryonic stem cell research and embryo screening for medical purposes, but oppose human reproductive cloning, embryo screening for non-medical purposes, and genetic “enhancement.”
Yesterday, Michigan voters amended the state constitution to allow Michigan’s scientists to derive human embryonic stem cells without fear of criminal prosecution. The amendment will allow fertility patients to donate excess embryos from IVF clinics, a practice which up until now was illegal in Michigan.
“Saving” embryos from destruction through the Human Cloning Ban Act, as conservatives suggest, would neither save them or the women carrying them to term.
American science succeeds because it rewards achievement, ability, and the promise of good ideas. Merit, not geography, should determine where research dollars go, because families affected by disease don’t care where the cure comes from.
It’s entirely possible for research to thrive even as the influence and relevance of science, in policy and to the average citizen, decline. Reflections on a dramatic conversation to elevate science in America.
Today, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News both endorsed a new policy that will be on the ballot this November in Michigan, and, if passed, will allow stem cell research. Michigan has the most restrictive anti-stem cell research laws in the nation, a tragedy which is compounded by the fact that Michigan has one of the most productive biotech R&D infrastructures of any state.
The face of stem cell research is changing as research moves towards the clinic and commercialization, and as patients demand access to experimental treatments.
When James Thomson’s and Shinya Yamanaka’s research teams published their ground-breaking papers last year on induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, one of the major hurdles to clinical application was the propensity of the cells to cause cancer. Now, scientists from Harvard University have successfully introduced the pluripotency-inducing genes into mouse somatic cells by way of adenoviruses, which are less harmful than retroviruses.
The Department of Health and Human Services to propose a rule that would ostensibly protect healthcare workers who object to performing abortion and sterilization procedures. The catch is that there are already federal laws in place that do just that. The regulation would instead open the door to denying patients access to all sorts of potentially controversial health care services. The comment period closes tomorrow.
The MacArthur Foundation today announced its annual list of 25 fellows. Recipients of the award get $500,000 to spend over the next five years with no strings attached. Many of the fellows are distinguished scientists working in fields as diverse as plant genetics, astrophysics, and epidemiology. One neuroscientist, Sally Temple, works extensively with stem cells.
In addition to a stumbling automotive industry, Michigan is home to some of the most restrictive regulations on stem cell research in the country. A new report from the Michigan Prospect calculates the scale of the negative economic impact of the hobbled biotech research on the state.
In the past year, stem cell research has taken great strides forward. Advocates and researchers alike are pushing for the federal government to expand its support.
Major innovations in the United States are often driven by collaborative research. Regenerative medicine is no different, and the federal government can help coordination.
Americans know that the future fortunes of the country rest on scientific and technological advances, so Mr. President, let’s take biomedical science policy seriously.
Three recent studies propel regenerative medicine forward, but don’t yet move it to the clinic. There is still no better venue for studying cell processes than embryonic stem cells.
Harvard researchers report in the online version of Nature that they have developed a method to directly convert tissue cells in a living mouse from one type into another. The development will certainly spark the latest round of discussions over ethical questions involved in stem cell research, but despite the potential for work that builds on this discovery and iPS investigations, human embryonic stem cell research will likely still be an important component of the field for some time to come.
Stem cell based research and products are carefully managed at the federal, state, and university level. Efforts to change or strengthen these rules must demonstrate that even more regulation is actually necessary.
The anti-science forces in Missouri don’t know when to call it quits. This week a state judge decided to hear a lawsuit from the Missouri Roundtable for Life that seeks to block $21 million of state funds from going to the state’s Life Sciences Research Board. The suit may tackle the definitions of reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
Unproven and experimental fertility treatments, combined with an ill-conceived presidential policy on stem cells, have created an industry that needs corralling.
An expert panel at Stanford University has determined that nearly one quarter of the colonies of human embryonic stem cells that the Bush administration had approved as ethically derived and eligible for study with federal funds do not meet Stanford’s ethics standards and should no longer be available to researchers there.
Embryonic stem cell research, strong scientific input on global warming policy, and more federal funding for scientific research: these are all things the American public wants.
According to a recent study published in the journal Cell, federal policy has a measurable impact on the amount of human embryonic stem cell research conducted in different countries.
With no stem cell therapies currently available in the United States, some citizens suffering from dehabilitating conditions turn to “stem cell tourism,” traveling abroad to receive stem cell-based treatments.
The media is abuzz with news of researchers at Cornell University successfully creating the first genetically engineered human embryo, and critics argue that this is a first step towards “designer babies.” But this is not necessarily a slippery slope, and we must consider that the potential rewards of this work are immense.
New legislation would lift the federal ban on funding for new lines of embryonic stem cells and create an ethical oversight mechanism for all research in the area.
Science Progress Editor-In-Chief and Jonathan Moreno explains why researchers need access to more embryonic stem cell lines.
Reporting on the work of the Hinxton Group, experts explained the state of the science and criticized policies that aim to avoid all ethical disagreement by banning research.
Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have announced the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos intended to provide stem cells for research. The intersection of embryonic stem cell and hybrid research could renew bioethical debates on this side of the pond.
Amid the premature hype about induced pluripotent stem cells (hyped by everyone but the scientists who did the work themselves), the unique characteristics of embryonic stem cells as platforms for learning about human disease can too easily be lost. An important new study should help correct this oversight.
A company in Irvine, California reported that it has developed a “non-viral” method of reprogramming human adult cells to behave like stem cells. Other scientists are showing caution after the announcement, but the company is keeping the research under wraps until it “finalizes an agreement with a corporate partner.”
A new paper published today in
Science describes advances from the Kyoto University iPS cell team, led by Shinya Yamanaka, facilitating production of pluipotent cells that are much less likely to form tumors than iPS cells created with previous methods.
A new paper released today from researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute offers data on the length of time cells must be exposed to reprogramming factors in order to induce the cells into behaving like stem cells. According to an email announcement from the HSCI, this allows scientists to “narrow the field of candidate chemicals and proteins that might be used to safely turn these processes on and off.”
The DOE Basic Energy Sciences program is forced to cut grants after a meager budget increase. Are iPS cells ready to replace embryonic stem cells? A new report in
Science on climate change and reduced global food production.
The phrase “stem cells” never made it into the State of the Union address—until last night, when the President implied that only policy makers, not scientists, can understand morality.
Bush exemption for Navy sonar use; farmer loses to Monsanto; SLAC loses to budget; Japan hikes budget for stem cell research; Supreme Court opening arguments for patent case.
A San Diego company has announced that it has been able to obtain embryo-like bodies by depositing the nucleus of a human skin cell into a human egg cell that has had its nucleus removed. The process is technically known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or, more simply, nuclear transfer, and popularly known as cloning.
Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology reports that it has grown embryonic stem cells from one cell of an 8-cell embryo left over in a fertility clinic and donated for research, without doing apparent harm to the remaining embryo. If the technique is successful the stem cell lines produced should qualify for federal research funding under President Bush’s policy.
New helmet sensors will improve army body armor; the disorganization of state stem cell initiatives; acute stress spikes after 9/11; think tanks for developing nations.
This history of the San Diego biotech cluster; stem cell grants in CA; simple wireless Internet access to low-income communities; DOE opens test reactor for university experiments.
A profile of Shinya Yamanaka; developing a malaria vaccine; providing an overdose antidote to heroin addicts; the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speeches.
Researchers recently cured sickle-cell anemia in a mouse model using iPS cells, highlighting the promise of iPS cells for future research and affirming the importance of preventing the current excitement about iPS cells from hastily ending embryonic stem cell research.
In the first demonstrated therapeutic application of induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers have cured sickle-cell anemia in mice. Rudolf Jaenisch, one of the authors of the paper announcing the work pointed out that this achievement means that research on human embryonic stem cells must go forward.
James A. Thomson and Alan I. Leshner issued a stinging response to those who would claim that the Bush administration’s stem cell policy encouraged the research that led to induced Pluripotent Cells; they call the work “a breakthrough achieved despite political restrictions.”
“A new way to trick skin cells into acting like embryos changes both everything and nothing at all.” Alan I. Leshner and James A. Thomson on the new advances in stem cell research, and other news and commentary from the mainstream press.
While pundits and bloggers argue over the political implications of recent breakthroughs in stem cell science, Kathryn Hinsch visits one of the first privately funded stem cell labs and learns that research must continue on all fronts: embryonic, IPS, placental, and adult.
The announcement that researchers can reprogram skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells is a triumph, but the discovery has implications beyond the creation of pluripotent cells.
Researchers working independently in Japan and the U.S. published papers this week announcing the creation of non-embryonic pluripotent stem cells. The method side-steps the ethical concerns over the destruction of embryos and could open the doors for federal funding of research on stem cells and the medical breakthroughs they promise.
Two dozen representatives from around the country met in Cambridge, MA last month to discuss interstate collaboration in stem cell research, highlighting the need for a systematic negotiation between states to allow collaboration and to unify the patchwork of currently existing regulations.
A team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, Oregon has succeeded in cloning twenty macaque monkey embryos. The techniques they used to achieve this monumental breakthrough in cloning work should also work for making human embryos. Could this breakthrough pave the way to a new source for embryonic stem cells?
