The College Fix

Political studies at Vanderbilt are not just limited to the halls of Calhoun and Wilson. There’s a different form of “political science” that exists in the vast and mysterious medical research buildings on the other side of campus.

Dr. Mark Magnuson just recently put what he says are his most exciting research projects on hold to await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

“We have to be careful,” Dr. Magnuson said. “We don’t want to begin any research that may need to be stopped.”

Magnuson is the founding director of both the Transgenic Mouse/ES Cell Shared Resource and the Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology.

He and others in the Vanderbilt Medical Center are paying close attention to the proceedings of Sherley v. Sebelius, which will decide whether the legality of federally funded embryonic stem cell research will be reversed or not. This case has brought public attention to the decade-long debate over the ethics of embryonic stem cell research.

The case against embryonic stem cell research is supported by researchers who work with adult stem cells, an area currently losing a significant amount of limited federal funding. More is directed towards embryonic stem cell research, which is illegal, lawyers argue. The 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment is still in force, and it says that Congress prohibits funding research in which a human embryo is destroyed. Opponents say this includes all embryonic stem cell research.

Since President Obama was elected, it has been a windy road for researchers like Dr. Magnuson.

“It’s hard to tell what the future of embryonic stem cell research is throughout the US,” he said.

The Bush administration limited taxpayer-funded research to a small number of stem cell lines that already existed as of August 2001. Last spring, President Obama lifted the Bush restriction allowing research on cells derived from surplus embryos, or ones that would otherwise be disposed after in-vitro fertilization (IVF). He allowed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to set new funding boundaries. Old stem cell lines became eligible for federal funding if scientists could “prove they met the spirit of the new ethics standards.”

This August a federal judge blocked the Obama administration from directing federal funds towards the expansion of embryonic stem cell research, arguing that the research involved destroying human embryos. This case is the one currently being appealed.

Family groups are rejoicing at their recent victory. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the judge’s decision was “a stinging rebuke to the Obama administration and its attempt to circumvent sound science and federal law.”

At this point, embryonic stem cell research is still funded. The appeals court put the lower-court ruling on hold, so that funding which is not yet illegal can continue.

Embryonic stem cell research is a big part of the Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology. The center was formed in 2004 and brought together investigators who have interests in stem cells, progenitor cells, and developmental biology in general.

“It was created in part to aggregate certain activities within the medical center,” said Dr. Magnuson.

There are about a dozen Vanderbilt staff members involved with the Center, and most activities are connected through the Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC), a team science initiative established by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Magnuson said that there are about 25 labs connected throughout the engineering and medicals schools. As the coordinating center for the BCBC, Vanderbilt is fairly important in the stem cell world. The Southeast Stem Cell Consortium was held at Vanderbilt this summer. Investigators from schools like University of Florida and Duke University travelled to Nashville for two days of seminars and presentations.

Dr. Magnuson researches the directed differentiation and genetic manipulation of embryonic stem cells. His primary focus is on learning how to convert embryonic stem cells into pancreatic beta cells so they can be used for treating diabetes. He says that human embryonic stem cells can be used for a wide range of therapies. They are considered valuable because of their ability to replicate themselves. They can be turned into and regenerate specialized cells that make up tissues, bones and organs of the body.

“Embryonic stem cells are exciting because they can be applied to different types of diseases,” Dr. Magnuson said. He and other scientists believe they can be used to repair damaged organs and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many others.

If human embryonic stem cell research were to become illegal, it wouldn’t be the end of things for the Center. The Center is also active in research with induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which Dr. Magnuson says are “extremely promising.” He believes that embryonic stem cell therapies can be discovered much faster, though, and that others like iPS could take up to 10 extra years to perfect.

Saved time is worth the ethical battle to Dr. Magnuson. He’s received some negative attention from the media and people in surrounding Tennessee counties, but he is still convinced that embryonic stem cell research is a good thing to do.

“Most people support the fact that it’s going to help cure disease,” Dr. Magnuson said. Most people that object, he said, just don’t understand what’s going on here.

A human embryo is destroyed in the process of extracting its stem cells, which is possible as early as one week after fertilization. Opponents argue that embryonic stem cell research not only subjects early human life to the status of research material, but it also destroys it.

According to the Center’s website, Vanderbilt’s position on stem cells is: “We do not believe that embryos derived from somatic nuclear cell transfer have the same moral status as those created by normal sexual reproduction. Thus, we support research that makes use this technology where the intent is to use the cell lines solely for medical purposes (therapeutic cloning), but not where the intent is to create a human being (reproductive cloning).”

Dr. Magnuson stands behind this.

“If you’re going to permit in-vitro fertilization, it’s not logical to not support embryonic stem cell research,” he said. “If it’s dead anyway…it makes more sense to take it and do something with it.”

Opponents also argue that research with embryonic stem cells is unnecessary, because it has yet to lead to any therapeutic benefits. According to Dr. James Thompson of the University of Wisconsin, who isolated the first human embryonic stem cell lines in 1998, “scientists have overestimated the prospects for transplantation cures using embryonic stem cells.”

Dr. Magnuson admits that there have been no cures discovered at Vanderbilt. “We’ve made no big splashes lately,” he said, “but progress in the field is really frequent and impressive.” He cited a therapy for acute spinal cord injuries that just recently became the first FDA approved therapy using human embryonic stem cells.

There still have been no solid cures attributed to embryonic stem cell research, though, which worries family groups. Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council argues that embryonic stem cell research is not only ethically wrong, but it’s also unnecessary. According to Dr. Prentice, “73 medical conditions have been clinically shown to improve when treated with adult-stem cell therapies.”

Adult stem cells can be found in many of our bodily tissues throughout our lives and are nearly limitless in supply. They are also more pluripotent, or able to transform into different bodily tissue types, than previously thought. Umbilical cord blood cells, for example, are extremely versatile. There are rarely problems with immune system rejection in adult stem cell research because these cells come from the patient’s own body.

Because of advances in adult stem cell research, in March 2010, a ten-year-old boy in London received a new trachea grown from his own stem cells. Multiple studies have shown adult stem cells to work successfully as therapies for Crohn’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, Sickle Cell Anemia, type I Diabetes, and up to 66 other diseases and conditions.

The push for federally funded embryonic stem cell research is diverting attention and important financial support that could otherwise be used to bring about known results, Dr. Prentice argues.

Dr. Magnuson says that studies on human embryonic stem cells have only been around for a decade, and cures shouldn’t be expected as the field is still developing. People have been studying adult stem cells for up to 30 years. Dr. Magnuson also argued that in the last few years they have been difficult to study because of the limited availability of the “Bush lines.”

“The two types of stem cell are different and do different things,” Dr. Magnuson said. “Embryonic stem cell research is a newer area and the two fields should be looked at differently.”

As the case against embryonic stem cell research moves through the judicial system, Dr. Magnuson and his colleagues wait to see if they will be able to continue with their investigations or if they’ll have to move on to slower, but more ethically acceptable forms of stem cell research.

Frannie Boyle is the former editor of the Vanderbilt Torch. She is a member of the Student Free Press Association.

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