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Legislators Get Short Course on Stem Cell Opportunities

Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

Aug. 4--Local and national experts yesterday gave a dozen Democratic state legislators a "Stem Cells 101" course in hopes of garnering more government funding and support for stem cell research.

Increased funding could help create business opportunities and prevent an exodus of researchers from the state, they said.

"I met with the governor, and we talked about developing a stem cell strategy," said Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, who hosted the four-hour hearing of the House Democratic Policy Committee at the William Pitt Union Building, Oakland. "This [hearing] is also a part of that effort."

Health Secretary Dr. Calvin Johnson testified that "the Rendell administration is committed to supporting all types of stem cell research in Pennsylvania, including embryonic stem cell research."

He added that the administration also would "support efforts to leverage additional resources, particularly financial resources, for this important life science research."

Stem cells have a unique ability to renew themselves and to generate specialized cells. Scientists are trying to develop therapies for a variety of diseases in which stem cells could replace damaged or diseased tissues of many kinds.

In some cases, such as the blood and bone marrow, stem cells can be collected from adults. But adult stem cells may not be able to produce other specialized cells, such as neurons.

Stem cells that are taken from embryos offer more opportunity to develop every kind of tissue, but are controversial because the process destroys the embryo. In 2001, the Bush administration limited federal funding of embyronic stem cell research to a few existing cell lines.

Pennsylvania does not permit experimentation on human embryos, which prevents researchers here from creating new embryonic stem cell lines.

But California, New Jersey and other states have launched ambitious projects to promote stem cell work. Researchers in other countries, such as cloning experts in South Korea, are in the forefront of the field.

That could lead to a brain drain as local researchers look for opportunities elsewhere, causing Pennsylvania to fall behind in a science in which it could be an international leader, Johnson suggested.

"We have incredible institutions here that have done remarkable work, and we don't want to limit them," he said after addressing the lawmakers. "We're poised and positioned to be tremendous leaders in this, and we need to move forward."

"We prefer the view from the front than the view from the rear," said Alan Russell, director of the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

"I truly believe that stem cells can help to revive the economy of our region."

Rep. Thomas Tangretti, D-Westmoreland, questioned the need for state funding for embryonic stem cell research. He suggested that tax dollars might be better spent on adult stem cell projects.

The inescapable problem of embryonic stem cells is that embryos must be destroyed to obtain them, he said.

"That is an ethical and moral outrage," Tangretti later said. "Who's going to decide which child is going to be destroyed in order to save your child? That's a decision that ... we ought not to be making."

He said he could envision broad, bipartisan support for an adult stem cell strategy in Pennsylvania.

"But if you allow it to explode into this embryonic stem cell issue as part of that, it's going to be very difficult to get passed," Tangretti said.

Russell said the key was to focus on advocating for people who need cures, not on one stem cell type or another. A legislative ban on embryonic stem cell research in the state could have "a crippling effect on our ability to push forward in regenerative medicine in general," he said.

Frankel plans to introduce a proposal in which a portion of an anticipated $35 million to $65 million annually in a bond issue from a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco would be earmarked for stem cell research.

"There are a couple of proposals out there," Frankel said. "We're still trying to flesh out something that works."

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Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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