Embryonic stem cells can become any other cell in the body, a capability researchers hope one day to direct toward healing organs ravaged by disease. In the U.S., President George W. Bush restricted federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research in 2001, with just $24.8 million doled out in 2004. But in a dramatic rejection of Bush's policy, the state of California in the past year became the world's largest single backer of stem cell research, a move spearheaded by Palo Alto, Calif.–based housing developer Robert Klein.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, created in November 2004, has the power to issue $3 billion in grants over 10 years for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research. Klein, a Stanford University–educated lawyer, was the chief architect of the campaign for the institute and, at $2.6 million, the campaign's largest financial supporter. Klein, who was unanimously elected as the institute's chairman, is hopeful that stem cells can help cure his youngest son's diabetes [see “A Proposition for Stem Cells,” by Sally Lehrman; Insights, Scientific American, September].
The institute's creation has propelled 10 states in domino fashion to play catch-up and consider establishing their own more modest stem cell funding initiatives, if only to halt brain drains of researchers to California. Yet although Klein has undoubtedly won a victory for U.S. embryonic stem cell research, his success remains controversial. Besides the criticism research on stem cells from human embryos typically attracts, Klein and the institute have drawn fire for alleged secrecy over meetings and potential conflicts of interest of board members who represent corporations, universities and nonprofit groups that stand to gain from research grants.
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Internationally, stem cell companies are growing more global, and quite likely the most multinational among them is Stem Cell Sciences. Headquartered in Scotland, the company employs roughly 40 people in research and development centers in the U.K., Japan and Australia, and it anticipates establishing a U.S. operation this year.
Stem Cell Sciences's bold plan is focused on commercializing human embryonic stem cells. Its technology can generate an unlimited supply of highly purified stem cells and their differentiated progeny for drug development. That promise has led to licensing agreements with pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis. The company's primary goal is to be the first to develop an embryonic stem cell–derived therapy aimed at targets such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
One problem with embryonic stem cells is how they can spontaneously differentiate into other cells when scientists do not want them to.R. Michael Roberts and his colleagues at the University of Missouri at Columbia have now discovered a way to grow human embryonic stem cells more predictably. They noted that mammal embryos grow in low-oxygen environments in the early stages of their development but that human embryonic stem cells are generally cultured in normal atmospheric oxygen conditions. In atmospheres of only 3 or 5 percent oxygen, the scientists found cells proliferated as well as they did under normal conditions while differentiation was markedly suppressed. The outlook is improving. Good science, new funding and commercial endeavors assure a place for stem cells, no matter what the federal stance.