Keep your eye on the stem cell ball, part two
Posted by Jesse Reynolds June 5, 2008
Biopolitical Times
A couple months back, I noticed that some stem cell research advocates were touting the work's primary benefit as lying in drug testing, not in cell therapies. The trend continues with recent comments by Jamie Thomson, who first isolated - and patented - human embryonic stem cells ten years ago.
In an interview, he says:
In an interview, he says:
Do you think the value of embryonic stem cells is more in drug discovery than in cell transplantation?
I really believe personally that the value of these cells is not in transplantation. It's hard to predict the future, but my guess is 20 years from now if you look backwards, 90% of the value of these cells will be in things that don't make the front pages. It will be things like drug screening, which is kind of boring, but it does get drugs to market that are safer and faster.
I do think there will be some niches where transplantation is important, but I think people are grossly underestimating how hard it is going to be for most diseases....
That's going to lead to understanding why certain cells are dying, and more traditional therapies are likely to prevent them from dying....
Why do you think the idea of transplantation therapies is so seductive?
It just captures the imagination, the whole idea that you could just make a new part, and it is very seductive....
How much do you think the political debate has warped the public view of what the science actually is?
I think it has a lot. The hype that was created is largely a part of that political debate. Both sides played a little bit loose with the truth, I think, at various times. One side would say one thing, the other side would feel obligated to counter it, and if you say rational, reasonable things, it doesn't get the message across. So it's kind of understandable, but the consequence of that is that people are ill-prepared for how difficult it's going to be to get transplantation therapies based on these cells.
If embryonic stem cell research can reduce human suffering, I don't have a preference whether this occurs through drug testing or cellular therapies. But these statements seem remarkably far line from what we have been promised: a "major revolution in medicine," a paradigm shift, and personal biological repair kits.
Of course, he's founded a new company - Cellular Dynamics - to capitalize on this line of work.
HT to BioEdge.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: