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Stem-Cell Breakthrough
Anne Underwood 7/24/2009 12:00:00 AM
It's a chilling thought. In the coming year, 130,000 people worldwide will suffer spinal-cord injuries—in a car crash, perhaps, or a fall. More than 90 percent of them will endure at least partial paralysis. There is no cure. But after a decade of hype and controversy over research on embryonic stem cells—cells that could, among other things, potentially repair injured spinal cords—the world's first clinical trial is about to begin. As early as this month, the first of 10 newly injured Americans, paralyzed from the waist down, will become participants in a study to assess the safety of a conservative, low-dose treatment. If all goes well, researchers will have taken a promising step toward a goal that once would have been considered a miracle—to help the lame walk.
MEDICINE
The Real Lessons Of Stem Cells
Yuval Levin 3/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
"Embryonic stem cells without embryos? Could it really work?" George W. Bush's question was directed to me. It was May of 2005, and the president, vice president and half a dozen White House staffers—of whom I was easily the most junior—were gathered in the Oval Office. I was a member of the domestic-policy staff, and the briefing was on the state of the stem-cell debate, which fell in my portfolio.
MEDICINE
The Whole World Is Watching
Claudia Kalb 3/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Six weeks before the hoopla over President Barack Obama's executive order lifting restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research, Hans Keirstead, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, was already sipping champagne. In 2005 Keirstead had published a study showing that a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells could make partially paralyzed rats walk. Now he'd gotten word that the FDA had cleared the way for Geron, a small biotech company in California, to launch the first clinical trial of the treatment in human beings with spinal-cord injuries. It was incredible news,not just for Keirstead, who'd been wanting to invent a therapy for brain and spinal-cord disorders since he was 11 years old, but for scientists who believe human embryonic stem cells can teach them about complex diseases and potentially lead to cures. Keirstead, 41, and his team of scientists hailed the news over a case of chilled Veuve Clicquot. "We put the last bottle down about six hours later," Keirstead says. "It was just a really fun time."
MEDICINE
A New Stem Cell Era
Claudia Kalb 3/9/2009 12:00:00 AM
All that is likely to change under Obama's executive order, issued Monday. Already, major progress has been made: earlier this year, the FDA approved the first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells in the United States. The biotech company Geron will test embryonic stem cells, derived from a government-approved line, against spinal-cord injuries. Now, scientists say they can build on the work they've accomplished during the Bush-policy era, take it in different directions and learn from one another in whole new ways. None of this, however, will put an end to the controversy. Longstanding critics deride the use of embryos for medical research, and they're letting the administration know that they're unhappy. House Republican leader John Boehner put it this way: "The question is whether taxpayer dollars should be used to subsidize the destruction of precious human life. Millions of Americans strongly oppose that, and rightfully so."
HEALTH
When Medicine Meets Marketing
Mary Carmichael 12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
Dallas Hextell was just a baby when his parents bought him a walker—not because he was late reaching a milestone, but because they worried he might never toddle on his own. At 9 months he had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a form of brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation in utero or at birth. A neurologist had told Derak and Cynthia Hextell there was no cure, that it was best to wait and see if their son improved. But Cynthia, after months of research, enrolled Dallas in a highly experimental trial at Duke University, where a pediatric-transplant surgeon infused him with a sample of his own stem cells harvested from his umbilical-cord blood. A few days later, Derak and Cynthia went home with their son, who was 18 months old and still not crawling, much less walking or talking. They "stared at him" for a week, says Cynthia. "One day he just started saying, 'Mama, mama, mama.' And I started crying." The Hextells ended up donating the walker to another child. By 2, Dallas was not only walking unaided, he was chasing the family dogs.
FACTCHECK.ORG
Obama's Stem Cell Spinning
Viveca Novak 9/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
By saying that "John McCain has stood in the way—he's opposed stem cell research," the Obama ad seriously misstates the view that McCain has held on this issue since 2001, when he began backing embryonic stem cell research, a position that was out of step with that of many of his fellow Republicans.