|
Researchers expand stem cell horizon
Adult variety possesses different advantages
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
BY KITTA MacPHERSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Recent breakthroughs in so-called adult stem cell technology will boost the overall effort to better understand these mysteriously flexible cells, including the controversial embryonic type, which are expected to someday repair bone, muscle and tissue, scientists said yesterday.
"There's not a single stem cell biologist who is any good at doing stem cell biology who would view one cell as a replacement for another," said Evan Snyder, a neuroscientist at the Burnham Institute in California, and one of the authors of a paper that appeared yesterday in Nature Biotechnology, causing a worldwide sensation.
Snyder and other members of the team found that amniotic fluid contains stem cells that in some ways offer distinct advantages over the embryonic variety. Embryonic stem cells raise ethical hackles because embryos are destroyed in the process of creating them.
"We figure, we just enlarged our arsenal," said Snyder, who conducts research on both adult and embryonic stem cells. "I mean, you would never say, 'Now I have erythromycin, I don't need penicillin.'"
Embryonic stem cells are drawn from embryos a few days old and have been seen to transform themselves into a multiplicity of cells. Adult stem cells, drawn from placentas and amniotic fluid, fat, and bone marrow, may not possess quite the same range of possibilities. Yet scientists are finding they are far more flexible.
'A NICE PIECE OF WORK'
Kenneth Breslauer, a top administrator-scientist at Rutgers University and a key planner of New Jersey's publicly funded stem cell institute, commended the advance. "This is a nice piece of work," said Breslauer, a molecular biologist. "But it should not be misused to inhibit continuing work on embryonic stem cells. We should be investigating all avenues."
Last month, Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a bill providing $270 million for stem cell research facilities, including $150 million for an institute to be named for Christopher Reeve, the late actor who was paralyzed in a riding accident and brought attention to stem cells.
The state is seeking a researcher who will lead the effort and devise the center's science plan. "Everyone is now taking us seriously," Breslauer said. "With a budget on the table, we are now a player."
The advances reported earlier this week reminded Robert Hariri, the founder of LifebankUSA in Cedar Knolls, how far things have come for those studying adult stem cells.
"In 2001, when I announced that I had found stem cells in placentas, people thought I was crazy," he said. The fact that the field has expanded and that scientists are making great advances is a powerful affirmation that he has been on the right track for years, he said.
"The world is figuring this out," said the neuroscientist whose company extracts stem cells from placentas it "banks" for customers. Along with Lifebank's parent company, Celgene of Summit, Hariri and other scientists at the firm are developing stem cell-based treatments for diseases, which will soon undergo clinical trials.
BROADER RESEARCH
Others involved in research on adult stem cells agreed scientists should continue working in a broad direction.
"Research is the foundation upon which new therapeutics are developed and, hopefully, one day provided to physicians and their patients," said George Dunbar, president and CEO of Aastrom Biosciences in Michigan. The company has developed a technique that uses bone marrow stem cells to regenerate damaged bone and veins. The technology is in clinical trials. The firm also has plans to develop treatments for damaged heart and brain cells.
"There are many different stem cell technologies currently at the research stage," Dunbar added, "and some, given time, will make it through the clinical development and regulatory processes."
The business effects of stem cell advances are still difficult to calculate, experts said.
"We'll have to see," said Max Jacobs, a biotech analyst with Mehta Partners in New York. "This technology is still unproven."
Kitta MacPherson may be reached at (973) 392-5836 or kmacpherson@starledger.com
© 2007 The Star Ledger
© 2007 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Click Here To Close This Window
