stem cells

As the Senate votes today on HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, this post from the archives describes how the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has negatively impacted some researchers. In light of these facts, it's hard to not support the passage of HR 810. (25 January 2006) Embryonic stem cell research is hot right now--really hot--but it's not easy. The South Korean stem cell crisis might be a minor setback, more relevant to basic scientific ethics issues, but the Bush administration's policy toward embryonic stem cells is not trivial and has already…
The ultra right US House of Representatives has voted to lift some restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and the Senate will likely follow suit, maybe as soon as today (New Scientist). The bill effectively zeroes out a five year ban on federal financing of stem cell research by allowing researchers to use federal grants to use embryonic stem cells dervied from surplus embryos produced by in vitro fertilization that would otherwise be destroyed. Currently it is very difficult for academic researchers to do any embryonic stem cell research because the only allowed cell lines (derived…
This CNN story is quite representative of an obnoxious genre: Stories about Bush's failed stem cell policy which pretend that the President's "more than 60" lines claim was only undermined by the passage of considerable time, rather than almost immediately. In fact, as I detail in The Republican War on Science and as others like journalist Stephen Hall have also detailed, the claim was never defensible. The only factor that delayed and defused outrage over Bush's dramatic misleading of the public on this subject was 9/11, which wiped the issue of stem cells completely off the map (and rightly…
As debate begins today on HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, this post from the archives describes how some states have had to find their own solutions for supporting embryonic stem cell research in the face of a ban on federal funding. Hopefully tomorrow's vote will make these unnecessary. (12 May 2006) As the federal government continues to hold on to a restrictive embryonic stem cell research funding scheme--one that prevents the use of federal funds for any research associated with new embryonic stem cell lines--others are having to take up the slack. Chris Gabrieli, a…
Well, here I am in London....blogging about events from before I left. Better late than never. First of all, the just-finished "Politics and Bioethics" conference--including my own talk--is covered in detail this piece from the Albany Times-Union. I arrived late at the conference Thursday, and so did not see the protests from the Not Dead Yet group that are described in the article. As for the Friday panel on "Politicizing Science" with Richard Doerflinger, the two of us didn't really tangle very directly over adult stem cell issues. The structure of the event, with a third panelist…
Turns out he had a big article on this subject in the neoconservative New Atlantis fairly recently. As we've done before--very successfully--I'm going to pull out three numbered quotes and invite you to respond: 1. "It is true that Alzheimer's is not a promising candidate for stem cell therapies," says Dr. Stephen Minger of King's College London, "but it was not scientists who suggested it was--that was all politics in the U.S. driven by Nancy Reagan." But in the United States, Mrs. Reagan was backed by myriad scientific and patient advocacy groups who want public funding of ESC research,…
The ScienceBlog-osphere has been abuzz lately with the current machinations the Bush administration's stem cell policy. As Nick Anthis, Matt Nisbet, and Ed Brayton have all mentioned, the controversy stems from Bush's threat to use, for the first time, a presidential veto to block a bill, passed by the House and expected to pass in the Senate, to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Obviously, a veto could delay that process indefinitely. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 238-194 last year to pass the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep…
It has been announced that the highly anticipated debate and vote in the Senate on HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, will take place on July 17th and 18th (next Monday and Tuesday). This is great news, but there's a catch. Although supporters of the bill (i.e. 70% of Americans) have already been troubled by Bush's continued stubborn insistence on vetoing the bill when it reaches his desk, there are now worries that HR 810 may not have the 60 votes it needs to pass, as Michael Stebbins reports at Sex Drugs & DNA. He's urging his readers to call their Senators' offices to…
Just kidding...I'm not debating him, but I am appearing on a panel with the famous deputy director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, this Friday at the "Bioethics and Politics" conference in Albany, New York. The panel set-up could lead to debate-like exchanges, certainly. Guess I'd better brush up on stem cells; I've been focused on climate for so long I suspect I'm a bit rusty. So anyway, here's a set of Google links on Doerflinger. Just like we've done with Ron Bailey and Tom Bethell in the past, I'd appreciate your reactions...
Bush's plans to veto HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, after it is likely passed by the Senate sometime this year have generated quite a bit of notice over the last couple of days. If it were allowed to go through, the bill would effectively overturn Bush's currently standing restrictions that prevent federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Although this latest flurry of attention was sparked by Monday's report from the Denver Post that Karl Rove has reaffirmed Bush's veto plans, this is by no means a new finding, since Bush has been threatening this all along…
This week's Ask a ScienceBlogger question is: On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned mammal. Ten years on, has cloning developed the way you expected it to? In short, my answer is yes. Although the number of species of mammals cloned has increased, slowly but surely, nobody is cloning their dead relatives yet. No surprise there. In 2006, though, cloning for cloning's sake isn't where it's at. Instead, the future of cloning lies in its applications to biomedical research. Today, that means, among other things, the prospect of using cloning to generate…
On the 29th of June, the Senate finally announced an upcoming vote on HR 810, a bill which would overturn President Bush's current prohibitions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. As I reported before, the announcement has been anticipated for some time, and many were disappointed when the one year anniversary of the passage of HR 810 in the House of Representatives (on May 24th) came and went without any progress in the Senate. The media coverage of this event has mostly been unexceptional, not particularly good or bad, although probably overly optimistic considering the…
This is a major landmark for stem cell therapy. Motor neurons derived from embryonic stem cells were implanted into paralyzed rats, which partially restored their ability to move like normal. A team of researchers at John Hopkins used a unique method to encourage the new spinal nerves to connect to muscles: a combination of transplanted motor neurons, chemicals that stimulate axon growth, and nerve growth factors. (More under the fold.) "This work is a remarkable advance that can help us understand how stem cells might be used to treat injuries and disease and begin to fulfill their great…
I found an amazing plethora of free-access articles and resource material on stem cells (from the journal Nature). The author of one (Sean Morrison) is a very well-known researcher here at UM Neuroscience. (Links below the fold). A glossary for stem-cell biology Austin Smith Nuclear reprogramming and pluripotency Konrad Hochedlinger and Rudolf Jaenisch Asymmetric and symmetric stem-cell divisions in development and cancer Sean J. Morrison and Judith Kimble The stem-cell niche as an entity of action David T. Scadden Stem cells, ageing and the quest for immortality Thomas A. Rando…
The anti-research types get a lot of mileage out of arguing that embryonic stem cell research has been hyped. In general, I think they greatly overstate the case, but we must admit--and I certainly do--that some pro-research statements have been made that are really beyond the pale. Perhaps the most outrageous example, of course, is Jonathan Edwards' statement during the 2004 campaign that If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again. Note to John: You…
I've been going on and on lately about the adult stem cell partisans and what's wrong with their arguments. But underlying those arguments, I suspect, is something deeper. These advocates just don't seem to share the scientific mindset when it comes to embryonic stem cell research. Some of them, I speculate, may not even fully grasp why scientists want to see this research get done in the first place. This reflection arose as I was reading Matt Nisbet's blog, which directed me to a Washington Post commentary by a Harvard stem cell scientist that I would otherwise have missed. The piece is…
As I've noted previously, there have been attempts to question the scientific peer review process following the Hwang Woo Suk scandal. But a Rick Weiss article in the Washington Post over the weekend helpfully explains why it's naive to think that peer reviewers can catch this kind of chicanery: Despite all the recent hand-wringing, there may be precious few new lessons to be learned from the Korean debacle, several experts said. Even the journal editors who promised to beef up their screening of submitted manuscripts say privately they doubt there is a practical way to intercept the small…
Yesterday, extending a public debate that I participated in earlier in the week, I criticized some arguments by Reason's Ron Bailey and started to criticize some writings by the Discovery Institute's Wesley Smith. I'm pretty much done with Bailey (see our exchange here), with whom I really don't disagree all that much. But I have more to say about Smith's arguments on the stem cell issue. In my previous post, I left off by objecting to Smith's attempt to create what I view as a false opposition between adult and embryonic stem cell research. There's much more to say here. In particular, I'd…
The three way debate/discussion on science and politics hosted by the Smith Family Foundation on Tuesday night was an interesting event, to say the least. It was in some ways a difficult discussion for me, because the other participants, Ronald Bailey and Wesley Smith, are much more inclined than I to mix it up about the ethics of different kinds of research, especially when it comes to future biomedical advances and whether they should go forward without restriction. I, on the other hand, simply take the stance that while ethical viewpoints may differ, that's no excuse for either side to…
It's by Matthew Nisbet, and it's about the changing politics of the stem cell issue in the wake of the Hwang scandal. The gist: The public had grown quite supportive of embryonic stem cell research, but the 2004 electoral campaign polarized the issue, and now the Korean fraud story has potential to turn opinion the other way. The data are troubling enough that Nisbet concludes with the suggestion that "perhaps the focus on funding stem cell research in science-friendly states remains a best strategy for stem cell proponents." Read the whole article. P.S.: Potentially contrary data comes in…