2008 Woodie Awards
Scientist explores history, politics of stem cell research
Lew Olowski
Issue date: 2/27/06 Section: News
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Last Wednesday, Dr. David F. Albertini addressed the UMKC chapter of the Student Society for Stem Cell Research (SSSCR) on the history, science, and politics of stem cell research.
"A true stem cell is a cell that by definition can renew itself," he said.
Stem cells can be found virtually anywhere in the body (adult stem cells) and in human embryos (embryonic stem cells).
"The most potent stem cell we know is the embryonic stem cell," he said. "It can turn into any kind of tissue. That is, after all, what an embryo does."
However, since one way to obtain embryonic stem cells is through human cloning (a process called "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer" or SCNT), many people are in favor of restricting stem cell research to adult stem cells only, which Dr. Albertini considers to be less versatile than embryonic stem cells.
"I would challenge you to show me one piece of evidence that you can differentiate an adult stem cell into other types of cells … " Albertini said. "Obviously, as we're going to entertain the use of these embryonic stem cells, it will raise major ethical issues … we're here not just to look at stem cell research, but to examine reproductive rights in the U.S. as well," said Albertini.
"There are many questions-political, ethical, and religious-that can tangle the issue, [and] it's sort of prototypical for the U.S. to kind of mix things together, rather than tease them apart," he said.
Though there is no federal ban on embryonic stem cell research, it is illegal in some states and government-sponsored in others. Albertini said Kansas has a bill planned that would make it a seventh-level felony to conduct SCNT.
"I'd be in jail right now if this passed," he said.
In order to avoid ethical problems, "scientists are of course considering alternatives."
"Alternative Nuclear Transfer can derive embryonic stem cells without destroying an embryo, [so] you bypass the ethical argument by making embryonic stem cells that can never become a fetus," Albertini said.
Even though this is still an "infant science," much progress has already been achieved. Albertini noted that "there's a whole field called 'tissue engineering' that studies how to induce stem cells to differentiate into specific tissues."
