THE fight against illnesses as different as Parkinson鈥檚 and diabetes has been
boosted by a decision by the US National Institutes of Health to start funding
research into human embryonic stem cells.
Because of their ability to differentiate into many types of tissue, stem
cells derived from human embryos may someday provide a unique source of
transplant material to treat many illnesses, including brain diseases such as
Alzheimer鈥檚. But before this becomes a reality, scientists will have to learn to
grow large quantities of these cells and how to direct their transformation into
various kinds of tissue.
In the US, only a few privately funded laboratories have tackled this
research. This is because NIH officials feared that the work might be prohibited
under a ban that the US Congress imposed on federal funding for embryo research.
But last week NIH director Harold Varmus announced that stem cells would not be
affected by the ban, even if they were originally derived from embryos, because
the cells alone cannot form a complete human being.
Advertisement
Varmus鈥檚 ruling means that although government scientists are not funded to
pluck the cells out of spare embryos left over after in vitro fertilisation,
they can work on stem cells obtained by privately funded researchers, or take
the cells from aborted fetuses. This will allow many more labs to get involved.
鈥淭his is a very, very big deal,鈥� says John Gearhart, an expert on stem cells at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 鈥淭here will be many researchers
who will shift from using nonhuman primate stem cells or mouse stem cells to
human stem cells,鈥� adds Varmus.
Congress has not yet raised objections to federal funding for this research,
but as Varmus notes, 鈥淐ongress has been paying attention to other matters.鈥�