NEWS RELEASES
4/26/05 News Release
MEDIA CONTACT: Ruthann Richter at (650) 725-8047 ()
STATEMENT ON STEM CELL RESEARCH GUIDELINES
Today the National Academy of Sciences released recommendations guiding research using human embryonic stem cells. This report is a significant step forward for the field of stem cell research, which until now had been working under a patchwork of state and federal regulations with no oversight for privately funded work. The new guidelines provide an ethically responsible framework that will allow researchers in different states or at different institutions to collaborate and share resources on research that I hope will lead to disease cures.
The NAS guidelines call for institutions to establish oversight committees to review all research involving human embryonic stem cells. Stanford had already recognized the need for such a committee and has already begun appointing panel members. The report also recommends a complete ban on reproductive cloning – a step that I and my colleagues at Stanford have previously recommended.
A particularly contentious area of stem cell research is the creation of chimeric animals that contain some percentage of human cell. These kinds of experiments were crucial for isolating human blood-forming stem cells, now used to treat human cancer patients. With the discovery of candidate human brain stem cells, creating chimeric mice will be important 1) to test human normal brain cells in mouse models of human genetic diseases; 2) to identify and isolate human brain cancer stem cells, and test new cancer therapies against those cancers in the mouse brains; and 3) to begin to understand the functions of human brain cells in the context of a mouse brain. I had previously asked Stanford University School of Law Professor Hank Greely and a panel of bioethicists and medical researchers at Stanford to review a proposal for creating mice with brains containing some percentage of human neural stem cells. Both the panel assembled by Greely and the NAS report recommend moving forward in a very careful manner with such research to ensure that these mice don’t take on any human characteristics such as altered brain structures. Although I don’t have any plans to begin this research, I welcome both the NAS and Stanford recommendations as they are thoughtful and well considered. I would fully comply with them.
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Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For more information, please visit the Office of Communication & Public Affairs site at http://mednews.stanford.edu/.
