A new scientific strategy for producing embryonic-type stem cells could provide a revolutionary way forward in the divisive national debate over stem cell research. The method, which scientists say can be tested within a year, may allow researchers to create the type of stem cells that embryonic stem cell advocates want -- stem cells that can produce every cell type in the body and that are genetically tailored to individual patients -- without having to create or destroy human embryos.

The proposed method, known as occyte assisted reprogramming or OAR, is outlined by Markus Grompe, a leading stem cell scientist, and Robert George, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, in today's Wall Street Journal. (Click here to read the article.)

"This research could enable us to produce embryonic-type stem cells that can be used in federally funded research under current regulations and, if it works, as the evidence suggests it should, it would put stem cell research on a footing all citizens can embrace," says Robert George.

OAR takes advantage of an emerging field called "epigenetic reprogramming," which would allow scientists to produce pluripotent stem cells directly, without creating and destroying human embryos in the process. "OAR is a method that can be tested and applied very quickly, because it uses already existing technolgies," says Markus Grompe. "We could test it in animals within a year with relatively modest funding." George and Grompe are calling for testing the method first with animal cells, and applying the method to human cells only after it is confirmed to produce "pluripotent" stem cells (cells that can produce any and every cell type in the body) without ever producing embryos.

Like cells derived from embryos produced by "therapeutic cloning," stem cells produced by OAR would genetically match the person whose body cell, such as a skin cell, was used to help produce the new stem cells. OAR, if it works, would provide all the research benefits without the moral hazards and political division. In addition, the research on OAR might enable scientists to learn how to reprogram body cells to the pluripotent stem cell state without the assistance of human eggs (or oocytes).

This description of OAR in the Wall Street Journal follows upon the publication of a recent report from the President's Council on Bioethics entitled Alternative Sources of Pluripotent Stem Cells, outlining various proposals for obtaining pluripotent stem cells without destroying living human embryos. The OAR proposal combines aspects of two of these methods in a promising new way.

In addition, in a recent article in the Washington Post, science writer Rick Weiss describes current research aimed at producing pluripotent stem cells without creating or destroying embryos. As he writes: ". . . [T]oday's heated debates over embryo rights could fade in the aftermath of technical advances allowing scientists to convert ordinary cells into embryonic stem cells."

The Bush Administration appears to have a strong interest in these alternative methods, and the President mentioned them when he vowed to veto legislation loosening restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. There also appear to be moves in Congress to advance a bill that would specifically fund research into these methods. Debate over these alternative methods promises to heat up and dominate the stem cell headlines in the next month."

EXPERTS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. In addition to his academic work, he is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and a member of the board of directors of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. From 1993-98, he served as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the 1990 Justice Tom C. Clark Award.

Dr. Markus Grompe is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the Oregon Health and Science University and Director of the Oregon Stem Cell Center. He is also a board member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. In 2002, he received the E. Mead Johnson award for pediatric research and the Merit Award of the Fanconi Anemia Research Foundation. He is involved in the clinical care of patients with genetic diseases as well as scientific investigation focussed on adult liver stem cells.

Dr. William B. Hurlbut is a physician and Consulting Professor in the Program in Human Biology at Stanford University. In addition to teaching at Stanford, he currently serves on the President's Council on Bioethics. His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy of biology. He has taught a course on genetics and human origins with Dr. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Director of the Human Genome Diversity Project and a course on epidemics, evolution and ethics with Dr. Baruch Blumberg who received the Nobel Prize for discovery of the Hepatitis B Virus. Since 1998 he has been a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare working group at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and has worked with NASA on projects in Astrobiology.

Dr. Maureen L. Condic is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah, currently conducting research on the regeneration of embryonic and adult neurons following spinal cord injury.

Contact:

Mary Schwarz
Ethics and Public Policy Center
(917) 526-3115