Prominent embryonic stem cell researchers leaving field, dimming prospects
Human embryonic stem cell research has been touted many times in the last decade as a path to curing many diseases. It has been the subject of much media coverage, controversy, and legislative action. The field has received federal funding since 2001, and that funding was expanded in 2008. The citizens of California voted in 2004 to commit billions of state money to funding human embryonic stem cell research. Missouri citizens voted in 2006 to enshrine the destruction of live human embryos as a right in their state constitution. Michigan citizens in 2008 followed Missouri's lead, overturning a state law forbidding the destruction of nascent human life for research purposes.
While many continued to talk about the promise of human embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and other ethical forms of stem cell research were showing actual positive results in patients and studies. Human embryonic stem cell research has yet to show success in treating human patients, but many supporters were confident when it was widely-reported that the FDA approved the first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells in 2010. Now, little more than a year later, the entire field has been put into question after two notable events in November 2011.
Geron, the biotechnology firm conducting the first-ever human embryonic stem cell trial and a key player in launching the field, unexpectedly announced on November 14 that they were giving up on embryonic stem cells entirely. The company claimed the decision was due to financial difficulties, and noted that there were “no signs” that any of the patients in their clinical trial to treat spinal cord injuries were being helped.
Ian Wilmut, who used cloning to create Dolly the sheep, recently addressed a stem cell conference in California on November 29 and urged fellow scientists to shift their focus from human embryonic stem cells to direct cell programming. Direct cell reprogramming involves changing normal skin cells directly into another type, skipping the need for embryonic stem cells.
The first signs of change were in 2007 when researchers discovered how to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). The process for creating them involves tricking normal skin cells into reverting into an embryonic-like state, giving them the potential to become any cell in the human body. In 2008, two companies co-founded by the lead researcher, James Thomson, stated they were abandoning human embryonic stem cells for iPSC research. Thomson was the scientist who first isolated human embryonic stem cells in 1998 and launched the field.
Some supporters of human embryonic stem cell research have claimed that while the field might not produce treatments on a large scale, it could still be instrumental in researching how other diseases work. A recent story again shows ethical stem cell research surpassing human embryonic stem cells. Stanford University announced on December 12 that their study showed that iPSC research can be as effective as human embryonic stem cells in studying the genetic disorder Marfan syndrome. Because iPSCs can be obtained from any patient's skin, researchers will not have to find live human embryos afflicted with Marfan syndrome and kill them to obtain their embryonic stem cells. The study authors said using iPSC instead of embryonic stem cells may be effective for a range of other diseases and easier to obtain.
As research progresses and alternatives to killing human embryos arise, the most prominent advocates and pioneers of human embryonic stem cell research are turning away from the field due to the scientific implausibility and monetary impossibility of the cells ever being used in large scale ways to cure diseases.