Hooray! The Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to two scientists for their work in the manipulation of living cells.
If that doesn’t sound like good news, then let me put it this way: two fellows have made it likely that, in the coming years, we will be able to treat dreadful degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, and we will be able to do it without killng anybody.
In the past, some scientists had made limited progress in trying to manipulate pluripotent stem cells into specialized cells. They knew that stem cells could be prodded to develop into any sort of cell, which would be useful for thousands of therapeutic purposes.
Now, where would you find these useful, pliable cells? In bone marrow, in umbilical cord blood, or even in amniotic fluid. And you can find stem cells in human embryos. You don't even have to use existing embryos, such as "extras" that couples chose not to implant after creating dozens of embryos for IVF. You can create an embryo in a lab for the express purpose of making it grow into certain types of cells. The useful cells are harvested, and the embryo is destroyed.
The New York Times, in covering the Nobel Prize story, grants a nod to those quaint “people who fear, on ethical or religious grounds, that scientists are pressing too far into nature’s mysteries” -- an observation designed to conjure up images of a fearful, ignorant mob persecuting what they don't understand. What they mean is, “Some of you object to making human beings so you can kill them and use pieces of them.” The Church has always condemned killing, broadly and specifically. But why should scientists listen to the Church?
Well, if it doesn't bother you when human embryos die for research, it should certainly bother you that embryonic stem cell therapy has been plagued with nightmarish problems -- the tendency to uncontrollably form teratomas, for instance. Teratomas are tumors made up of different types of tissue, and can contain, for instance, a hair, a tooth, even a rudimentary limb or eyeball. Here is a photo of a teratoma (not for the sqeamish).
So these are the results of embryonic stem cell research so far: monstrous tumors and frequent immune rejection of transplanted tissue derived from embryonic stem cells. This is where ESCR has taken us. Not a single cure, not a single bit of relief for patients. None.
But here is something new (well, new by Nobel Prize standards; the research that won the award was completed something like six years ago): something fresh, and something hopeful. Rather than taking something young and trying to make it mature, they now know that they can take something old and specific and turn back the clock, making it "ready and wiling" to become whatever the patient needs it to be.
According to the New York Times, (emphasis mine)
Biologists hope the technique will enable replacement tissues to be generated from a patient’s own cells for use against a wide variety of degenerative diseases. For the moment, that remains a distant prospect. But the cells have already proved useful in studying the genesis of disease. Cells generated from a patient are driven to form the tissue that is diseased, enabling biologists in some cases to track the steps by which the disease is developed. [emphasis mine]
The technology will be tested next year as scientists in Japan try to restore sight to patients with macular degeneration.
But you don’t want to hear about science from me. Go here, here, or here if you want to have the intricacies of John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka's research explained. What I got from my layman's reading is this:
We thought it was too late to go back. We thought that once a cell started down a certain path, its fate was sealed – that the cell would develop that the way it was programmed to do, and its function was set in stone. We thought that once it started differentiating itself, then that was that.
We thought embryonic stem cell research was here to stay.
Now it turns out we were wrong about cells and their potential. You can take an adult cell and, with a few small modifications, turn it around in its path – bring it back to infancy – go back to square one, where all things are still possible. No monsters necessary. The key to renewal and healing is still available to us, within us.
Maybe we can start over with stem cell research. Never mind that nightmare turn; never mind those dark and tortured paths. We can take an old story and give it a new beginning. We can turn things around.
Oh, hope! Oh, fresh starts. Thanks be to God for some good news, and may God bless and guide the hands and the minds of all scientists.
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Great article Simcha!! I was telling my son about this last nite…so happy you wrote about it..I was wondering why every one wasn’t as excited as I was!!! Thanks!!
Meanwhile in another lab scientists are trying to create sperm from stem cells:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19879113
How nice of God to short-circuit our attempts to be gods! How smart of him to preserve His creation from His creatures! Great synopsis, Simcha. Real hope!
This reminds me of the teaching in children’s catechism: something isn’t bad for us because it’s sinful. Something is sinful because it’s bad for us.
This whole article is an excellent illustration of that concept.
Amen. Why am I not surprised that Truth, light, and amazing hope can be found in the amazing and fertile world that God created, rather than in a twisted dungeon, where a scientist would trade everything to broker a deal with the father of lies? Thanks for this! This will be mandatory reading today for my budding little scientists.
What an excellent reminder that God is a good Creator and caretaker of His people. And it is always good to see scientists helping to create a culture of life!
NPR did a solid report about this yesterday—the scientist they interviewed spoke respectfully about the “moral and ethical issues” surrounding embryonic stem cells. It was refreshing to hear.
I like the post because I like to think of the cell, the one that got on the wrong track, that turned back and got a fresh start as a metaphor for myself.
Just a wonderful reminder that God does have a plan for mankind and no matter what we, think, do or say, His way will prevail. I, for one, am mighty greatful for that, because I know how I can mess up things pretty badly sometimes when I try to take charge!
Great article. Too bad the tv news media is stuck on sensationalism rather than real news these days.
Regrettably, the voters of California allocated $73 MILLION dollars to research on EMBRYONIC stem cells, exclusively. Will they continue to spend this money? Is there any way of re-allocating it to adult stem cell research?
I’m sure I stated this before, but in ‘05 my father was diagnosed with Stage III Multiple Myleloma cancer which is considered incurable. He had three stem cell transplants, the first two with his own adult stem cells and the third was a clinical trial from a donor (bone marrow). It cured his cancer.
Ugh I’d never heard of a teratoma before, and now I can’t stop looking at pictures of them. So is this what people are talking about when they tell you they “absorbed their twin”?
Pro-lifers are mistakenly praising this work. PLEASE, PLEASE do a little research! Gurdon is the first scientist to clone an animal (tadpole) and Yamanaka is credited with the discovery of “iPS stem cells.” While iPS stem cells could be made without the use of human embryonic stem cell lines, to date they have NOT. See http://www.cogforlife.org/2008/02/20/new-stem-cell-reprogramming-methods-not-pro-life/ and
http://www.cogforlife.org/2009/01/25/reprogramming-stem-cells-or-pro-lifers-minds/.
Yamanaka used human embryonic stem cell lines to create his iPS cells!!
Obtaining stem cells from a human embryo is highly unethical. There is only one way to obtain stem cells from a developing human embryo, and it involves killing the embryo. A human embryo is an innocent human being in his first stage of life. It is always and in every case morally wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being at any point in life, including the embryonic stage of development.
Obtaining stem cells from fatty tissue, bone marrow, or the umbilical cord after the birth of a baby, on the other hand, may be done ethically. No harm comes to the person whose stem cells are obtained for research in such a fashion.
http://www.all.org/nav/index/heading/OQ/cat/MTkw/
And, on cloning:
At the level of human rights, the possibility of human cloning represents a violation of the two fundamental principles on which all human rights are based:
1. The principle of equality among human beings, and
2. The principle of non-discrimination.
“If human rights are to mean anything, at anytime, anywhere in the world, then surely no one can have the right to do such a thing (clone). Human rights flow from the recognition that human beings have an intrinsic dignity that is based on the fact that they are human. Human embryos are human, even if they are cloned.”
Not only does human cloning violate the inherent dignity and human rights of the cloned embryo, it also “objectifies human sexuality and turns the bodies of women into commodities.” Women are also deprived of their innate dignity by “becoming suppliers of eggs and wombs.”
http://www.all.org/nav/index/heading/OQ/cat/MTkw/id/Njk3Nw/
PLEASE help set the record straight!
Thanks for your take on this scientific endeavor and for the informative links.
Re: Nancy… That NPR report ended with a question to some “prominent scientist” as to whether this will mean the end for Embryonic Stem Cell research and the guy just said, “No, Embryonic research is still the gold standard for stem cell research.” End of story. Prominent Scientists need never back up irrational assertions with evidence. Especially not on N P R.
I would think that the religious right would agree with Leslie. If the iPS cells are as “good” as ESCs even though unfertilized (and they do make
cloning a possibility), aren’t they just as much persons as those extra IVF embryos?
I have had Parkinson’sdisease for 16 years and can tell you a few things about human dignity. You lose it when you can no longner move, walk, talk and take care of yourself, like wiping your butt or choking on your own saliva.
If I did not have PD I would still favor ALL stem cell research because I do not believe a microscopic undifferentiated cell is a person deserving 14th amendment rights.
As one who suffers with every breath but exists, I don’t much like the
loving “plan”. I think you people have a lot of nerve when claiming to
know the mind of god. The church has historically been an obstacle to progress.
@Leslie: Yes, it’s no secret that Yamanaka made his discovery while using embryonic stem cells. The point is that he was actively, specifically looking for a way to avoid that in the future. Check out this quote from the NYT from 2007 (next three paragraphs are quoted from the article):
.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11prof.html?_r=0
.
Dr. Yamanaka was an assistant professor of pharmacology doing research involving embryonic stem cells when he made the social call to the clinic about eight years ago. At the friend’s invitation, he looked down the microscope at one of the human embryos stored at the clinic. The glimpse changed his scientific career.
“When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters,” said Dr. Yamanaka, 45, a father of two and now a professor at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University. “I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.”
After years of searching, and at times almost giving up in despair, Dr. Yamanaka may have found that alternative. Last month, his was one of two groups of researchers that independently announced they had successfully turned adult skin cells into the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells without using an actual embryo.
@Rayilyn Brown: Thank you for reminding us what is at stake when we discuss these matters. I won’t pretend to understand what you are going through. I hope you will take it the right way when I offer my prayers for your healing.
Rayilyn, my mom has MS. She has moral objections to the use of embryonic cells for research, but also plenty of practical objections. She frequently informs politicians and the like that if they support funding for embryonic stem cell research, they are signing her death warrant. Research and clinical trials using “adult” (in quotes b/c those don’t have to come from adults, they can be from cord blood and such too) stem cells have resulted in cures for a number of conditions, as well as proving to be safer for patients (not resulting in runaway tumor formation, for example); it will take years for embryonic research to catch up - and that will be too late for my mom. Every dollar and hour spent on embryonic cell research is lost to the “adult” cells that have proven to be of use and that may result in a cure for MS (or Parkinson’s or whatever). Just wanted to say that some of us can understand something of what you are experiencing and want cures just as much as you do - but embryonic stem cells don’t hold much hope anyway and the focus is better put elsewhere.
@Anna, my father never would’ve accepted ESC treatment for his cancer. Not would the doctors have offered it because it simply doesn’t work.
@Rayilyn-I’m sorry for your pain and struggles.
In order to produce iPS cells, embryonic stem cell lines were used. The skin or somatic cells turned into embryo-like cells are capable of being cloned. As long as “personhood” is conferred on cells the research is stalled and threatened as well as contraceptives and IVF. I am 76 and too old for a cure, but the very idea that there is religious opposition to research is very disturbing to me. It is the deciding which kind of research can be done that I object to. Jonas Salk would have a hard time getting polio vaccine today as fetal cells were used in his research that has saved lives and kept people out of iron lungs. Was what he did immoral? I think David Prentice of the FRC list of phony adult stem cell cures was immoral. Thanks, Simcha, for your prayers.
I don’t want to play the Devil’s advocate here, and I certainly am grateful that science is finally realizing that embryonic stem cell research and treatment are useless and even harmful, but right before reading this I saw a press release from American Life League expressing concern over the methods used to manipulate the adult cells. While I admit that American Life League has a tendency to put a negative spin on things, it’s worth a look:
http://www.all.org/article/index/id/MTExMDA/
They include a link to an article that might help illustrate their concerns:
http://www.cogforlife.org/2009/01/25/reprogramming-stem-cells-or-pro-lifers-minds/
Great article, thanks for your insight!
“...may God bless and guide the hands and the minds of all scientists.”
Your beautiful prayer says a lot.
Genetic Science Learning Center - University of Utah
“Newborn infants no longer need their umbilical cords, so they have traditionally been discarded as a by-product of the birth process. In recent years, however, the stem-cell–rich blood found in the umbilical cord has proven useful in treating the same types of health problems as those treated using bone marrow stem cells and PBSCs.
Umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants are less prone to rejection than either bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells. This is probably because the cells have not yet developed the features that can be recognized and attacked by the recipient’s immune system. Also, because umbilical cord blood lacks well-developed immune cells, there is less chance that the transplanted cells will attack the recipient’s body, a problem called graft versus host disease.
Both the versatility and availability of umbilical cord blood stem cells makes them a potent resource for transplant therapies.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/stemcells/sctoday/
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“Now, where would you find these useful, pliable cells? In bone marrow, in umbilical cord blood, or even in amniotic fluid. And you can find stem cells in human embryos.”
Science will go along just it pleases - just as it has always been. However, no one should be quick to dismiss testing using cells acquired in moral ways…...woman could donate the cord blood of their baby after birth, if they desire. Bone marrow transplants already take place, hence access to bone marrow. Maybe cures will come along long after those suffering right now are long dead, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t advocate for the use of cells morally procured. Perhaps if these means of getting cells were more widely known of, people would be more likely to lobby for them.
Mary Meets Dolly is a good resource about the science behind all this.
http://www.marymeetsdolly.com/blog/index.php?/archives/1237-Pro-life-Objections-to-Induced-Pluripotent-Stem-Cells.html
Isn’t it wonderful news. I think John Gurdon in particular is quite amazing. Imagine - he worked for 40 years to bring this about. I love stem cell science it gives such hope for suffering humanity. You can read more about my own experiece of having a transplant as well as all the latest stem cell news and science at my website www.stemcellpatient.net
Whenever the words “stem cell” are used or written, most think in terms of an embryo or fetus as the only supply. This is not true. When stem cells are used today to treat diseases they originate from the person suffering the disease. These stem cells are called adipose stroma cells or bone marrow cells taken from the patient. This type of harvesting of stem cells will potentially mean that in the future people will be able to tap into their own stem cell reservoir for brain, muscle, organic or any other major disease at any time it may strike and replace the damaged or dead cells with new ones from some other part of the body. This takes self healing to a whole new level.
There are stem cell centers that are using patient’s own adipose stroma stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, MS, stroke, spinal cord injury, brain tumor, and many other diseases right now.
This is not immoral, sci-fi, futuristic medical treatment. It is happening now and giving the necessary and much needed relief and/or cure that mankind should expect and have. We must support the research that is going on in this field. A new approach must be found to stop the suffering. Instead of continually trying to head it off with conventional, unhelpful medical treatment from the outside in, maybe we can do a better job stopping the suffering in our body from the inside out.
Thank you Mary, you wrote what I did not have the time to - being so busy with my stem cell website these days. The stem cell transplant I had here in New Zealand was adult stem cells taken from the adipose tissue on my stomach and part of a clinical trial.
Jean Beardsall wwww.stemcellpatient.net
To Jean Beardsall, Wow, I did not know that they no longer needed to ‘harvest’ stem cells from your bone marrow (which I thought sounded painful ) but can now just take a simple syringe from your tummy fat and use that, amazing, I know it may sound like im ‘pushing’ your own website here, but when I visited after reading your comment above, I was really glad I did, you have gone to a ‘lot’ of trouble to not only ‘explain’ the whole process and exactly what the different stem cell types are etc but you have done it all in very plain English and even added videos, I also note the costs in NZ are REALLY low compared with anywhere Iv ever found, and run under the adult stem cell foundation which I see is a ‘not for profit org’ hence the low cost I guess.. any how I will be in touch with them and will let you know if I manage to come to NZ to get my Adult stem cell treatment. Thank you so much, and good luck with your recovery. Dave.
I have no idea why the USA keep pushing embryonic stem cells as the rest of the planet has moved on and realised quite a while a go that it is adult stem cells which are the way forward, from chopped off fingers regrown to 16 blind people 100% cured in just 3 weeks, too your own HIV man cured 100% in the USA, also there are now very reputable surgeons working under the umbrella of not for profit organisations in Australia and New Zealand, and now they have just opened a clinic in China, which is 100% staffed by American and United Kingdom surgeons and yet is signed off on by the Chinese, my government. My mother had stem cell therapy in NZ just a few months back and has built a website explaining all of this information, along with costs, contacts, her story, etc http://stemcellpatient.net
To Dave Johnson, I’m so glad the information was helpful for you. That’s why we do it. best of luck Dave.
Jean Beardsall www.stemcellpatient.net
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