Genomic bottlenecks

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

[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.