Stem Cell Brain Drain in UK--Due to ESCR!
For years we have been warned that there would be a "brain drain" if we did not pour billions into ESCR and human cloning research. I have called this the "blank check" demand.
Meanwhile, in Brave New Britain--the country that never says no--scientists wanting increasing funds warned that unless they received all of their demands, stem cell scientists would flee to the USA when President Bush leaves office and the policy changes. And now, a brain drain may have begun in the UK--only it is over the country's insufficient support for adult stem cell research. From the story:
A leading British scientist is leaving the country to work in France after claiming that British science gives too much priority to embryo experiments over "more ethical" alternatives.I believe that ethical research is also the best science since it permits the kind of societal consensus necessary for long term support of the scientific enterprise.
Colin McGuckin, professor of regenerative medicine at Newcastle University, believes that more funding should be given to work with adult stem cells. He is quitting after just three years with one of his most senior colleagues to go to an institute in Lyons.
McGuckin was part of the first team to grow liver tissue using adult stem cells taken from blood in the umbilical cord. Some scientists believe that it is more ethical to use adult stem cells, as research work on cells from human embryos destroys the embryo...
McGuckin says Newcastle University and the government's funding bodies give too much preference to embryo experiments. He told Times Higher Education that France had kept a "much more reasoned balance". He added: "[France] is very supportive of adult stem cells because they know that these are the things that are in the clinic right now.
"A vast amount of money in the UK from the government has gone into embryonic stem cell research with not one patient having been treated, to the detriment of [research into] adult stem cells, which has been severely underfunded."
Here is the story on the successful liver experiment referenced in the story, which I wrote about in the NRO.
Labels: Brave New Britain. Adult Stem Cell Research. Brain Drain.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:54 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
There's been a brain drain from England for some time. Some of it was due to the rabid animal rights movement making it difficult if not dangerous to do animal based research or testing. Ironically that led to the creation of Pro-Test (see http://www.speakingofresearch.org/) which, like SHAC, started in England and has now migrated to the US.
Chris Day, pro vice-chancellor for the faculty of medical sciences at Newcastle, said he was disappointed and surprised that Professor McGuckin had not raised his concerns directly with the university. He said that the university took issue with each of the points the professor had raised.
A statement from the university says it has been negotiating to ensure bigger and better facilities for academics, and expansion plans are now in place. It says the business department held "extensive negotiations" with Professor McGuckin over the ownership of a company he wanted to set up, but agreement could not be reached. "We received no offer of a £10 million investment from a third party so we cannot comment further on this issue," the statement says.
The group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core), which opposes embryonic stem-cell research, said the loss of Professor McGuckin would create a "huge hole" in Newcastle's research portfolio.
Both the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust said they funded the best proposals across all areas, whether adult, umbilical or embryonic. A spokesman for the UK National Stem Cell Network said was it was "misleading" to claim that expenditure on embryonic stem-cell research was overshadowing adult research.
Its so funny that there is an actual, "Deus ex Machina" that solves all of the problems and ends all of the controversy regarding stem cell research, but the media won't report it and politicians ignore it, simply because they don't want anything to stand in the way of unfettered abortion rights.
You may want to read a scientific journal that discusses current research of IPSCs. IPSCs are not yet a direct replacement for ESCs.
Retrovirus used to directly reprogram the cells to a pluripotent state are causing gene expression irregularities that do not occur in ESC.
The hope is that other methods will help overcome this but are not a reality. Much in the same way that reprogramming the cell to cure disease is being researched.
The ongoing and unwavering perspective of most stem cell scientists around the world is that all forms of stem cell research continue in an urgent manner.
Retroviruses have already been shown not to be necessary. They have used harmless viruses that disappear, and now DNA strands, as discussed in posts here. Do a search of "Lead into Gold."
Retrovirus has been shown not to be neccessary in Mouse so far, not yet human.
So does that mean that all ESC successes is mouse should also be assumed in humans as you are doing now? Well then looks like ESCr has made tremendous advancements as a therapy, lets put them on the list next to Prentices, careful boys the scores going to get rung up now..LOL.
Many scientists still feel there are major hurdles to overcome as no model in human has proven anything, but the progress is very promising.
The only thing I found in your links was a reference to a local Milwaukee newspaper? Latest news from the sources - Yamanaka and Melton Labs clearly indicate further research is necessary before you prematurely state that all concerns are past.
The Melton team used retroviruses to carry the two genes in but suggest they might not be necessary.
"We may need two types of chemicals, one to loosen the chromatin structure, and one to reprogram. We are looking for that reprogramming chemical, and it should be possible to find it eventually," she said.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_70342.html
Hochedlinger and others said it is important to continue to work on embryonic stem cells as well as adult stem cells and reprogrammed adult cells, because it remains far from clear which will eventually prove most effective.
The newest method for creating IPS cells is inefficient, with fewer than 30 colonies of induced stem cells emerging from 10 million mouse cells that were inserted with the gene-bearing plasmids. The efficiency will need to improve, and researchers will have to perform the same feat with human cells, for it to be a viable way to deliver cells as therapy, said Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps Institute in La Jolla, California.
While Yamanaka's newest method ``is currently a very tedious and inefficient procedure, it's a good waypoint in the path toward a clinically acceptable method for reprogramming cells,'
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=audCgl.ZSJ4Q&refer=home
ect....
Again, its premature of you to announce that these are now replacements for HESCs, especially when there is still much work to be done. But hopefully it will happen very soon!
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