2013 Newsletter: “Off-the-shelf” Engineered Stem Cells: Are They Therapeutically Valuable?

FROM THE DIRECTOR

The astounding 2013 report by an Oregon research team of the successful creation of stem cells from a somatic cell nucleus transferred into an unfertilized human egg was met with surprising calm by the lay press and the bioethics community. This is in sharp contrast to the outcry a decade ago when similar experiments were denounced as “human cloning” and the U.S. congress rumbled with attempts to outlaw all such research with human eggs. Public concern was further fueled by an extraordinary scientific fraud in 2005 by a South Korean research team that falsely claimed to have created such stem cells.

The 2013 calm is a clear, positive sign that the newness — and the shock — of the promise of stem cell regenerative medicine has worn off. Thousands of young scientists have been trained since the 1999 cover of Science announced stem cells as the “breakthrough of the year.”

So where are the stem cell therapies? Where are the cures for diabetes, spinal cord injuries/diseases, stroke, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, heart and kidney failure? Are they coming?