Lead Into Gold: No Thanks to Obama, Another IPSC Breakthrough

Meanwhile back on the ranch, scientists continue to progress with the development of induced pluripotent stem cells, an ethical “alternative” to ESCR—because no human life is destroyed in the derivation of the cells. Now, using human tissues, IPSCs were created without potentially dangerous viruses and genes by none other than James Thomson, the first scientist to derive human embryonic stem cells. From the story:

By reprogramming skin cells to an embryonic state using a plasmid rather than a virus to ferry reprogramming genes into adult cells, the Wisconsin group’s work removes a key safety concern about the potential use of iPS cells in therapeutic settings.

The new method, which is reported in today’s (March 26) online issue of the journal Science, also removes the exotic reprogramming genes from the iPS equation, as the plasmid and the genes it carries do not integrate into an induced cell’s genome and can be screened out of subsequent generations of cells. Thus, cells made using the new method are completely free of any genetic artifacts that could compromise therapeutic safety or skew research results, according to the Science report...

The resulting cells, says Thomson, are remarkably similar to embryonic stem cells and show the same capacity to proliferate indefinitely in culture and diversify into all the cell types of the human body.

Under President Bush’s 2007 executive order, this type of research was required to be federally funded as a way to surmount the bitter cultural divides over biotechnology and its impact on the intrinsic importance of human life. In other words it was pro ethics and pro science. This is the very kind of policy President Obama promised that he would pursue as president—but instead, he stealthily broke that promise by revoking the Bush order.

Human IPSCs were only announced in November 2007. The advances made since then have been breathtaking, with some of the most notable scientists in biotechnology—Thomson, Ian Wilmut (of Dolly the sheep fame), Yamanaka—in the field. Let’s hope they and/or other alternatives someday render ESCR scientifically superfluous.

Here’s a link to the Abstract of the paper.