http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=235817By Eugene J. Koprowski
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
FARMINGTON, CT - AUGUST 27: Stem cells are viewed on a computer screen at the University of Connecticuts (UConn) Stem Cell Institute at the UConn Health Center on August 27, 2010 in Farmington, Connecticut. UConn scientists and students have been recipients of federal grants for work using human embryonic stem cells and could be significantly affected by a federal court ruling that would limit funding for embryonic stem cell research. On August 23, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction in Washington, D.C., halting all federal funding for basic research into embryonic stem cell technology. Stem cell research is believed to offer great hope in finding treatments to many diseases and illnesses including heart attacks, strokes and spinal cord injuries. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Longtime real estate developer and stem-cell research activist Bob Klein and his allies are planning to ask California voters, currently facing billions in unpaid debt, to borrow another $3 billion in 2014 to build additional embryonic stem cell research facilities.
But critics point out that of the some $6 billion already spent on projects linked to Klein, none has yet produced a marketable therapy.
"I don't know of any evidence for embryonic stem-cell effectiveness," said Dr. Jane Orient and executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Embryonic stem cell research involves the deaths of unborn children, since they are the source of the cells. It's been controversial for years and President George Bush banned federal funding for it. President Barack Obama, however, reinstated it.
Led by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, founded by Klein, California has borrowed, through bond financing, approximately $6 billion over the last six years to fund embryonic stem-cell research.
The money has gone to new facilities at UC-San Francisco, Stanford University, UCLA, UC-San Diego and University of Southern California.
Activists recruited actor Christopher Reeves – of Superman fame – to tout the political initiative to fund CIRM when it was launched six years ago, and he asked Californians to "stand up for those who can't."
But even one of science's leading journals, "Nature Magazine," this week notes Klein's dream of building a business on the media-generated hype surrounding embryonic stem cells has "failed" and his advocacy of the therapeutic potential for diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and a host of other afflictions was "zealous and oversimplified."
Klein did not return repeated phone calls from WND seeking comment about the the project, a successor initiative to Proposition 71, which he backed six years ago. Critics say the new project could lead to tax increases in California.
But he did tell The Los Angeles Times this week that he is planning for the embryonic stem cell bond measure to be on the ballot in 2014.
Though embryonic stem cell research has yielded a lot of publicity – some 600 papers have been written by CIRM researchers since 2004 – there have been no marketable therapies developed.
This contrasts, scientists tell WND, with the realized promise of adult stem cells, which are fueling not only marketable therapies, but, also, an emerging biotechnology industry in the U.S., creating new jobs for technicians and researchers.
"It's just a fact that adult stem cells have proved to be effective," said Orient.
Just this week, there have been a number of developments in adult stem cell research:
* A Cleveland-based company, Arteriocyte, Inc., today disclosed that it is launching the first, commercially available adult stem cell expansion system for researchers, which will enable the rapid production, ex vivo, or outside of the body, of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for use in studying disease mechanisms in the cardiovascular system. This is the company's first commercial product, and will "enable cell biology and cell-based research teams to rapidly and more cost-effectively expand HSCs for use in their research," said Don Brown, CEO of Arteriocyte. The product will be demonstrated in two weeks at the American Society of Cell Biology convention in Philadelphia.
* A spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Verastem, Inc., announced it has raised $16 million and is seeking to change regular human cells into what appear to be stem cells, and use them to target cancer cells.
* University of Michigan researchers announced today they have demonstrated that adult stem cells are "metabolically different" from other blood-forming cells, and the metabolic differences can be used to control the activities of blood-forming cells currently used in disease therapies. "We may be able to modulate stem cell function when treating degenerative diseases, or when performing cell therapies," said Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology.
Others are making progress, too, with animal stem cells. Researchers at the Thomas Jefferson University and the Farber Institute for Neuroscience have found the administration of bone marrow stem cells helps restore the motor activity of rats as soon as one day after they have suffered a stroke.
This kind of therapy could be used on humans, too.
"In the host animals, we found profound changes and preserved brain structure, along with long-lasting motor function improvement," said Lorraine Iacovitti, a neurobiologist at the Farber Institute, who studies Parkinson's disease.
MADISON, WI - MARCH 10: Jessica Dias, a associate research specialist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at University Wisconsin-Madison, prepares stem cells for culture, March 10, 2009 in Madison, Wisconsin. On March 9, 2009 President Barack Obama signed an order reversing the Bush administration's limits on human embryonic stem cell research. Scientists at the University Wisconsin-Madison, who were the first to experiment in finding cures to neurological and muscular diseases through stem cell research, are now hoping to receive federal funding to aid in their work. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)
That can be contrasted to the fortunes of embryonic stem-cell researchers, like Alameda, Calif.-based BioTime, whose CEO Michael West this week announced that he is giving away the publicly traded company's embryonic stem cell lines for free.
To keep itself financially viable, BioTime has developed a product completely unrelated to embryonic stem cells, one made of common starch, called Hextend, which is used to treat severe bleeding from gunshot wounds and other traumas.
Though a thriving embryonic stem cell business touted by activists nearly a decade ago has never materialized, the lame duck Congress is Washington, D.C., may be poised to "legislatively codify" the executive order signed by President Obama on March 9, 2009, expanding human embryonic stem cell research, according to a resolution endorsing the bill, passed by the board of directors of CIRM.
That bill is sponsored by a left-leaning Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.
Topic: California to borrow billions for this? (Read 1290 times)