US universities get round regulations on stem cell research
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《英国医生杂志》
Harvard University is the biggest, newest player to get around US government regulations saying that institutions that receive federal funding can carry out stem cell research only on 60 established stem cell lines. Harvard, together with other organisations, is circumventing the regulations by establishing institutions that use private funding for the research.
Harvard has established an institute involving 14 of its schools and hospitals and nearly 100 researchers and scientists. The university aims to raise $100m (?6m; �84m) for the institute.
Federal funding for stem cell research in the United States has been restricted since 2001, when President Bush said he was limiting research to 60 stem cell lines from embryos that had already been destroyed.
He said, "Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading edge of a series of moral hazards." Only 18 lines are now available for studies. Research with private funds can continue.
Last week 206 Democrat and Republican members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Bush asking him to loosen his restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, but they did not specify how. A White House spokesman said the president maintains his opposition to the destruction of human embryos.
The legislators pointed out that researchers could use the 400 000 embryos created for in vitro fertilisation that are now unused and frozen. Whether used for research or not, they will ultimately be destroyed.
Announcing the new stem cell research institute, Harvard president Lawrence Summers called it "an important effort to help unlock one of the fundamental mysteries of life," one that "could lead to important new medical treatments." Stem cells can develop into specialised nerve, muscle, blood, bone, and other cells and could be used to treat many diseases.
Though research on adult stem cells is more advanced, work on embryonic stem cells—which can develop into any cell in the body—is promising and controversial. The Harvard Stem Cell Institute, which will have input from Harvard experts in ethics, politics, religion, and economics, will review research before allowing it to go ahead.
The institute will focus on five groups of disease for which stem cells hold promise: diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson抯 disease, blood and immune disorders such as leukaemia and AIDS, cardiovascular disease, and musculoskeletal diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Harvard is not alone in pursuing stem cell research with private funds. The state of New Jersey, home to many drug firms, passed a law that promotes stem cell research, though not human reproductive cloning.
Last week politicians and business leaders in the state met to provide information about the research and to set up a foundation to raise research funds. Under state law fertility clinics can inform their clients that, with their written permission, the clinics can give unused embryos to other couples or for stem cell research. Rutgers University, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey have all established stem cell research centres.
The University of California at San Francisco has just hired Dr Arnold Kriegstein, formerly at Columbia University in New York, to head its developmental and stem cell biology programme. His research focuses on the way neurons are created and migrate to the cortex—key information for neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and learning disabilities. A scientist at the university, Dr Gail Martin, was one of the first to isolate precursor cells from mouse embryos and coined the term embryonic stem cells.
Stanford University has also set up an institute for cancer and stem cell biology, using $12m from an anonymous donor. The University of Wisconsin, where stem cells were first isolated and grown by Dr James Thomson in 1998, said it was setting up a 100 person stem cell research project.
The University of Minnesota, a leader in research on adult stem cells, says it will expand its research beyond the 18 federally approved stem cell lines. It will seek private funding for this legal but controversial approach.(New York Janice Hopkins T)
Harvard has established an institute involving 14 of its schools and hospitals and nearly 100 researchers and scientists. The university aims to raise $100m (?6m; �84m) for the institute.
Federal funding for stem cell research in the United States has been restricted since 2001, when President Bush said he was limiting research to 60 stem cell lines from embryos that had already been destroyed.
He said, "Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading edge of a series of moral hazards." Only 18 lines are now available for studies. Research with private funds can continue.
Last week 206 Democrat and Republican members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Bush asking him to loosen his restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, but they did not specify how. A White House spokesman said the president maintains his opposition to the destruction of human embryos.
The legislators pointed out that researchers could use the 400 000 embryos created for in vitro fertilisation that are now unused and frozen. Whether used for research or not, they will ultimately be destroyed.
Announcing the new stem cell research institute, Harvard president Lawrence Summers called it "an important effort to help unlock one of the fundamental mysteries of life," one that "could lead to important new medical treatments." Stem cells can develop into specialised nerve, muscle, blood, bone, and other cells and could be used to treat many diseases.
Though research on adult stem cells is more advanced, work on embryonic stem cells—which can develop into any cell in the body—is promising and controversial. The Harvard Stem Cell Institute, which will have input from Harvard experts in ethics, politics, religion, and economics, will review research before allowing it to go ahead.
The institute will focus on five groups of disease for which stem cells hold promise: diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson抯 disease, blood and immune disorders such as leukaemia and AIDS, cardiovascular disease, and musculoskeletal diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
Harvard is not alone in pursuing stem cell research with private funds. The state of New Jersey, home to many drug firms, passed a law that promotes stem cell research, though not human reproductive cloning.
Last week politicians and business leaders in the state met to provide information about the research and to set up a foundation to raise research funds. Under state law fertility clinics can inform their clients that, with their written permission, the clinics can give unused embryos to other couples or for stem cell research. Rutgers University, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey have all established stem cell research centres.
The University of California at San Francisco has just hired Dr Arnold Kriegstein, formerly at Columbia University in New York, to head its developmental and stem cell biology programme. His research focuses on the way neurons are created and migrate to the cortex—key information for neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and learning disabilities. A scientist at the university, Dr Gail Martin, was one of the first to isolate precursor cells from mouse embryos and coined the term embryonic stem cells.
Stanford University has also set up an institute for cancer and stem cell biology, using $12m from an anonymous donor. The University of Wisconsin, where stem cells were first isolated and grown by Dr James Thomson in 1998, said it was setting up a 100 person stem cell research project.
The University of Minnesota, a leader in research on adult stem cells, says it will expand its research beyond the 18 federally approved stem cell lines. It will seek private funding for this legal but controversial approach.(New York Janice Hopkins T)