Scientists eager for stem cell policy change

Although President-elect Obama’s pledge to change federal
policy on stem cell research is not likely to lead to new cures by the end of
his first year — or even first term — the scientific community is eager to get
moving.

Embryonic stem cell research is one area in which the
change that Obama has promised on the campaign trail will provoke an immediate
effect.

Once he has acted to ease the restriction on federal
funding, researchers across the United States will be free to request funding
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to collaborate with colleagues
conducting experiments with private or state-government money and those working
abroad.

{mosads}“Just with the stroke of a pen, the new president could
open up new avenues of research,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the lead
Democratic sponsor of legislation that would broaden funding for embryonic stem
cell research.

Obama has vowed to lift restrictions put in place by
President Bush and to enact legislation the current president twice vetoed.

“He would really be signaling that we really are moving
in a new direction,” DeGette said.

“The research facilities in America … are by and large
prepared to move forward with the research. I don’t think there’d be much
delay,” said Rep. Mike Castle (Del.), the lead Republican sponsor of the bill.

During the campaign, Obama pledged to take swift action.

“As president, I will lift the current administration’s
ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after
August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on
stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight,” Obama wrote to
the website ScienceDebate2008.com.

Lawmakers supporting embryonic stem cell research plan to
reintroduce legislation putting a new policy into law.

Congress passed similar legislation in 2006 and 2007 but
it died twice under Bush’s veto pen. Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) are the lead sponsors of the Senate version of the bill.

On Monday, DeGette and Castle led a bipartisan group of
11 House members who delivered a letter to Obama requesting an executive order
“early next year.”

“Scientists, not politicians, should decide which
techniques have the best potential for progress in developing therapies,” the
legislators wrote Friday.

Researchers believe embryonic stem cells can be made to
replicate practically any human cell or tissue, thus leading to treatments for
countless ailments.

While not disputing the potential of embryonic stem
cells, Bush objects to the fact that embryos are destroyed in the process of
extracting the cells. To many who believe embryos are human life, this practice
is tantamount to murder.

Moreover, those with moral and ethical objections also
note that scientists have made progress on reprogramming adult stem cells into
the “pluripotent” cells coveted by researchers.

Advocates for the research counter that embryonic stem
cells are derived, with the donors’ permission, from unused frozen embryos in
storage at fertility clinics. Most scientists view the emerging research on
reprogramming adult cells as promising but still believe the embryonic cells
have more potential.

Researchers are eager for Obama to act.

“Lifting the restrictions will provide real encouragement
to the people in the field and will eliminate a real drag on the field,” said
B.D. Colen, the senior communications officer for university science at
Harvard, home to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

“It could change things pretty much right away,” said
Terry Devitt, the director of research communications for the University of
Wisconsin, which runs the U.W. Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.

None of these advocates predicted that Congress would
necessarily earmark new money for embryonic stem cell research, however.

“I think that question is premature,” DeGette said.

The NIH, meanwhile, will have to weigh new spending in
this area against its priorities across the life sciences.

Whether Congress and the Obama administration devote
additional resources to the area, a laxer policy will have immediate benefits
to stem cell researchers.

Scientists already receiving funding for work allowable
under the Bush policy could add new stem cell lines to their projects. In
addition, institutions that set up separate lab facilities to research
non-federally approved cells can consolidate their efforts. They also will be
able to work with researchers who have moved ahead with alternate funding since
2001.

Though optimistic about the effects of a new federal
policy, research institutes caution that the fruits of this research will take
time and that cures are not around the corner.

“There’s still a lot of basic science to be done. … The
[Bush] policy has set research back five to six to seven years in this
country,” Devitt said.

It could be six months to a year after Obama announces
his policy before the federal government even cuts any checks.

“I would not expect that people have applications ready
to go that they’re planning to FedEx to Bethesda Jan. 21,” said Sean Tipton,
the director of public affairs at the American Society for Reproductive
Medicine. “I don’t think anybody expects money out the door real quickly.”

The
NIH is headquartered in Bethesda, Md.

After Obama issues his order, the NIH and other agencies
will have to draft and implement the policy. Then, researchers will have to
submit requests for grants and wait for an answer, which can take months.

“It’s a long, drawn-out process,” Devitt said. “We’ll
have to compete with Harvard and Stanford and the University of California [at]
San Francisco,” he said of three of the leading centers of stem cell research.

Merely subjecting grant applications for embryonic stem
cell research to the standard competition for NIH dollars has always been the
scientific community’s goal, Tipton said. “I think that most of the
organizations who were involved in the stem cell fight are pretty committed to
the scientific review process in place,” he stated.

“All we’ve been asking for is: ‘Treat embryonic stem cell
research like everything else,’” Tipton said.