[And here I thought researchers had out-savvied Fauci...blast. Just what is ethically problematic, and for whom, is a mystery]
[NYT] AUG 25, 2001 Worried Scientists Are Told Ample Stem Cell Lines Exist By NICHOLAS WADE
Administration officials took pains yesterday to emphasize the wide opening given by President Bush for government-financed research on human embryonic stem cells, and to quell the fears emerging among scientists of various obstacles in their path.
Mr. Bush said on Aug. 9 that the research could go ahead, but only with cell lines - self-perpetuating colonies - that had already been established in laboratories. Yesterday, in Crawford, Tex., the president said in response to a question that existing stem cell lines "are ample to be able to determine whether or not embryonic stem cell research can yield the results to save lives."
Use of the human cells could lead to methods for regenerating the tissues lost in many kinds of disease, but is ethically problematic because it requires the destruction of some human embryos left over from in vitro fertility treatments.
Some scientists have welcomed Mr. Bush's decision, saying it may not be everything they wished but it gives them enough leeway to proceed. But others have voiced a range of fears, including that not enough usable lines exist, that the owners of such lines will impose unreasonable conditions on research, and that the existing lines' possible contamination with animal viruses would make them unusable for clinical research.
"Many of these concerns will prove to be unfounded and what we should focus on now is conducting the basic research for which the president has opened the door," said Jay Lefkovitz, general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that "the critical issue up to now is that we haven't been able to study these cells with federal funds."
"So now that we can, let's make the best of it," Dr. Fauci said.
Private companies and university researchers supported with nongovernment money have been free to derive embryonic cell lines from human embryos. But because research is at such a basic stage, many scientists believe advances will be accelerated if the large number of university researchers financed by the National Institutes of Health are able to join in the effort. Until Mr. Bush's decision, federal financing of the research was blocked.
Scientists were surprised to hear that so many human embryonic stem cell lines have been derived, and several expressed doubt about the 60 lines the administration said exist. The lines were discovered in phone inquiries by the Office of Science Policy at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lana Skirboll, director of the office, said last week that the owners of the lines would be published on the Web as soon as they gave permission to be named.
The best known stem cell lines, those first derived by Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in 1998, belong to the university's intellectual property arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The foundation licensed several principal uses of the cells to Geron, the company that financed Dr. Thomson's research, leading some scientists to fear that Geron would control their research.
But a spokesman last week stressed the foundation's interest in having biologists do research on the cells without restriction. Any commercial applications of such research would need to be negotiated with the foundation or with Geron for applications that fall within Geron's license, the spokesman said, but such negotiations are routine.
In a National Institutes of Health report issued earlier this month, and in articles on Friday in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, concerns were raised over the animal cells to which human embryonic stem cells are exposed when being coaxed to grow in laboratory dishes.
Because of fears of introducing animal viruses into patients, the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to restrict the use of animal cells and material exposed to them. Embryonic stem cells grown by present methods might not be looked on askance by the F.D.A. But Geron has cultured human embryonic stem cells without directly exposing them to the mouse skin cells.
"To say this is a showstopper is not reality," Dr. Fauci said.
Others have raised the possibility that more stem cell lines might be derived, but only if a compelling need should emerge.
"When and if it becomes clear the research is running into road blocks, because the existing lines are for one reason or another not adequate, let's come back and reconsider the question of deriving more lines at that point," said Dr. LeRoy Walters, an ethicist at Georgetown University.