Hope for stem cell funds in U.S.

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 11, 2007 by Karen Buckelew

As the United States Senate considers restoring federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine scientists have found themselves in the unusual role of policy advocates.

Several researchers from the school's Institute for Cell Engineering, a multidisciplinary research center Hopkins started six years ago, met with Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski Tuesday at Hopkins' East Baltimore campus to tell their side of the stem cell story.

They said restrictions on federal funding have crippled their research, which could lead to major developments in the pharmaceutical industry. The restrictions also could create a division between researchers working with private money and those who work with federal dollars, the scientists said.

Philanthropic dollars and state money - Maryland lawmakers just approved $23 million for stem cell research in the state in fiscal 2008 - are not sufficient, said the scientists and Mikulski. Interested companies and scientists, they said, are going overseas.

"We strongly believe this area holds a lot of promise," said Dr. Chi V. Dang, vice dean for research at the school and head of the Institute for Cell Engineering, which was started with $58 million from an anonymous donor. "This is not hype."

The Senate Tuesday began debating the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which would restore the federal funding for embryonic research that was slashed in August 2001 under the Bush administration.

The legislation also would create ethical guidelines, including that scientists may only work with new stem cell lines created using embryos that would otherwise be destroyed as leftovers from in vitro fertilization attempts.

Currently, federally funded researchers are allowed to use only the 21 stem cell lines that existed when the restrictions were put in place. Those lines, the Hopkins researchers said, have since been found to be defective. The proposal also would not allow funding for cloning.

The corresponding legislation passed the House of Representatives, 253-174, on Jan. 11. All Maryland's Democratic representatives voted in favor of the bill. Republican Roscoe G. Bartlett voted against it, and Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest did not vote.

The Maryland Republican Party supports Senate Bill 30, known as the Hope Act, a proposal to support the exploration of stem cells that are not derived from embryos, investigating whether they can carry the potential of embryonic cells.

"We support stem cell research so long as it does not destroy human life," said John Flynn, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party.

The White House Tuesday also pledged its support for the Hope Act. "The Administration does not believe science and ethics need be at odds," it said in a statement.

Though President Bush has vowed to veto the Stem Cell Enhancement Act, as he did with similar legislation last year, Mikulski, a Democrat, said she felt confident the proposal would draw the necessary two-thirds votes in the Senate to override a veto.

"It's a consensus piece of legislation that has strong bipartisan support," Mikulski said.

The Hopkins researchers said the private funding that has been supporting the field will not go much further.

"Philanthropic support is not a sustainable engine for research," Dang said.

Academic science ordinarily is a strongly collaborative field, according to the researchers, but scientists funded with federal money must be cautious not to share equipment or even ideas with researchers working on forbidden projects.

"The fundamental basis of Hopkins is our ability to collaborate," said Valina Dawson, a Hopkins professor of neurology, neuroscience and physiology, and a co-director of the Institute for Cell Engineering Neuroregeneration Program. "The Senate proposal would then allow us to do what we usually do at Hopkins, which is work together."

Politics and scientific research are awkward bedfellows, admitted Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein, a Hopkins neurology professor and director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research.

But his patients, who suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease and other neurological disorders, drive his efforts to educate lawmakers and voters, he said.

"In health, there is no other side," Rothstein said. "It's what's good for the patient."