More From Fr. Tad

Monica pointed out Fr. Tad’s most recent column, Holy Grail of Reprogramming. He was also interviewed in the latest issue of Our Sunday Visitor giving credit to the federal government’s financial restrictions on embryonic stem cell for the latest breakthrough using ethical stem cell research:

I think that the restrictions on funding have had an effect on how scientists approached this question, because federal funding is always seen as a form of approbation and blessing. Any time you get federal funding for something, there is a kind of “sanctioning” that occurs. And when the federal government refuses to fund something, it becomes a kind of dark spot on the entire field. That has been the practical effect, and I do suspect that because of that dark spot there has been a greater willingness to entertain alternative approaches.

Adios, sickle cell anemia - part two

Here’s a lovely development - iPCS’s treat sickle cell anemia in mice:

Researchers followed a well-established protocol for differentiating embryonic stem cells into precursors of bone marrow adult stem cells, which can be transplanted into mice to generate normal blood cells. The scientists created such precursor cells from the IPS cells, replaced the defective blood-production gene in the precursor cells with a normal gene, and injected the resulting cells back into the diseased mice.

The blood of treated mice was tested with standard analyses employed for human patients. The analyses showed that the disease was corrected, with measurements of blood and kidney functions similar to those of normal mice.

Whether using therapies with umbilical cord cells or with reprogrammed cells, we are getting very close to proclaiming,”Hasta la vista, sickle cell anemia”.  As a carrier of this trait with children who are carriers, I couldn’t be happier for my future grandchildren!

HT to Wesley Smith

Editing to add: Check out Dr. Nuckols’ commentary on this topic.

We need a little BOGO, right this very minute . . .

 

I’m personally giving some BOGO Pinot Grigio as a Christmas gift. It’s great to be able to help fund and promote adult stem cell awareness and research in a way that others can also appreciate. Would you like to do the same?

Bill and John make it super-easy to do. Visit BOGO Wines and simply make your order by Wednesday, December 19th.

Q&A with Dr. Dan - holiday hiatus

We are going to take a break from Q&A in December. Send in or post your questions because we’ll pick it back up in January!

The beginning of the end of the stem cell wars - again?

Fr. Thomas Berg’s latest, The Beginning of the End of the Stem Cell Wars? offers some optimistic analysis about the future of the opposition, those who are not in favor of halting embryonic stem cell research. My own sense is less optimistic, but I think he makes some fine points.

With the cloning of human embryos just within grasp, not everyone will be so ready to pull a Wilmut and just throw up their hands and embrace reprogramming. His was a radical “conversion” built entirely from a pragamatic position, and it may have given us a false impression that the broad stem cell research community would soon (and so easily) follow suit. With that in mind, seemingly on cue,  prominent researchers have very recently expressed the hope that the new development in reprogramming won’t negatively impact embryonic stem cell research policy - positing the need for new embryonic stem cell lines. At this point, they argue, embryonic stem cells still hold the most promise because there are kinks yet to be worked out with using iPSC’s for therapeutic purposes. Fr. Berg asserts that those who argue this way are just stuck in an old paradigm and are in danger of being left behind because embryonic stem cells are simply no longer the gold standard.

It’s wearisome, really. That’s why the title says “again”. But we have to take these steps in arguing the points and remain not only steadfast, but also patient and charitable. After all, what we are hoping to see change goes beyond the intellectual. If we ever hope to bring about a moral conversion in our scientific community, we need to prepare minds and hearts to receive supernatural grace. If Thompson and Yamanaka have missed their moral moment - we don’t give up. We keep praying and keep promoting in whatever way we can.

So, we may witness many new “beginnings”. Let’s not grow weary.

Editing to add that Chelsea has pointed to a great way to help bring down those supernatural graces we so need:

“Merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your dearest Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, who nurtured You from childhood, bless my native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.”

Dr. Nuckols calls it as she sees it: reactive science

  

Knee jerk deceit - Nuckols writes:

The Washington Post has published an editorial by Alan I Leshner, Ph.D., and James A. Thomson,Ph.D. The op-ed is evidently in reaction primarily to Charles Krauthammer’s November 30,2007 column and blurs the line between fact and fiction in order to make a political plea to remove restrictions on funding for embryonic stem cell research. Read the rest.

Fr. Tad: The Holy Grail of Reprograming

Fr. Tad’s most recent Making Sense of Bioethics is devoted to the stem cell breakthrough and how it may (or may not) affect the future of stem cell science and policy.

The Holy Grail of Reprogramming: A New Era for Stem Cells?

December 2007 . The recent discovery that regular old garden-variety skin cells can be converted into highly flexible (pluripotent) stem cells has rocked the scientific world. Two papers, one by a Japanese group, and another by an American group, have announced a genetic technique that produces stem cells without destroying (or using) any human embryos. In other words, the kind of stem cell usually obtained by destroying embryos appears to be available another way. All that is required is to transfer four genes into the skin cells, triggering them to convert into pluripotent stem cells. It has been called “biological alchemy,” something like turning lead into gold. Many are hailing “cellular reprogramming” as a breakthrough of epic proportions, the stuff that Nobel prizes are made of, a kind of Holy Grail in biomedical research.

As important as this advance may prove to be scientifically, it may be even more important to the ethical discussion. It offers a possible solution to a longstanding ethical impasse and a unique opportunity to declare a pause, maybe even a truce in the stem cell wars, given that the source of these cells is ethically pristine and uncomplicated. As one stem cell researcher put it recently, i f the new method produces equally potent cells, as it has been touted to do, “the whole field is going to completely change. People working on ethics will have to find something new to worry about.” Thus, science itself may have devised a clever way to heal the wound it opened back in 1998 when human embryos began to be sought out and destroyed for their stem cells. Dr. James Thomson (whose 1998 work ignited the controversy, and who also published one of the new breakthrough papers) acknowledged just such a possibility in comments to reporters: “Ten years of turmoil and now this nice ending.” Whether this nice ending will actually play out remains to be seen, but a discovery of this magnitude, coupled with a strong ethical vision, certainly has the potential to move us beyond the contentious moral quagmire of destroying human embryos. Continue at NCBC

The Best of the Web this Week: Stem Cell Research

There were many good editorials this week regarding the recent stem cell breakthrough and announcement by Dolly cloner Ian Willmut - too many to post and comment on individually.

Colleen Carroll Campbell: Breakthrough signals a path to ethical cures

Charles Krauthammer: Stem Cell Vindication

Ramesh Ponnuru: Sharon Begley on Stem Cells - exposing media hypocrisy on stem cell research

Rich Lowry: Science Trumps Politics

Happy weekend reading!