E-mail to a friend
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Mass Millions [an error occurred while processing this directive] Mass Cash [an error occurred while processing this directive]
The Spiritual Life
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
|
|
  
|
|
Worcester firm aims to clone human cells
Gareth Cook, Globe Staff, 7/13/2001
The project, which has been quietly underway for at least a year, will take cells from human donors and then transfer their DNA into human egg cells, which can then grow into embryos. The company hopes to use the procedure, which has never been done on humans, to create specialized cells for new medical treatments. But the same technique could be used to create the world's first cloned human being. Advanced Cell Technology's president, Michael West, confirmed that the company had collected eggs from donors, but refused to say whether it had performed the procedure. "We will announce our results in a scientific paper," he said. The announcement brought sharp rebukes from some medical ethicists, who said that no company should proceed with this kind of work until the public has had a chance to establish ethical rules. "This is deeply irresponsible," said George Annas, a professor of health law at Boston University, who said that the procedure might open up the firm to prosecution under a state law that prohibits certain kinds of fetal research. The announcement will add to an intensifying national debate over where life begins, and over how to balance the rights of unborn children and those who suffer from debilitating diseases for which there is no cure. Advances in biotechnology have far outstripped the legal and ethical guidelines that govern what can be done, and there has been pressure on the federal government to play a stronger role. Kentucky scientist Panayiotis Zavos announced in late January that he plans to produce a human clone, and a religious sect that believes in aliens has said that it is recruiting volunteers for its own cloning experiments. Scientists have been able to clone mammals, including cows, sheep, and pigs, but the process is still fraught with problems, and has produced a range of mysterious illnesses in the animals. Most scientists, including the researchers at Advanced Cell Technology, believe that cloning a human would be a medical and ethical disaster. But West said that cloning technology can also be used to create cells customized to a patient, which could replace damaged or malfunctioning tissue without the risk that the patient's immune system would reject it. Researchers have shown that the technique, called therapeutic cloning, can work in mice to treat Parkinson's disease, and West said he hope to be able to one day treat an enormous number of diseases, from heart problems to diabetes to spinal injuries. "The public should be excited, because the day will come when a person who suffers a spinal cord injury will not have to spend the rest of their life without a cure," said West, whose company specializes in animal cloning. Therapeutic cloning relies on a kind of cell, known as an embryonic stem cell, which is a kind of biological clay, easily molded into different cell types. These cells, though, are drawn from a group of cells that is growing into an embryo - and that represents, critics say, a potential human life. Currently, researchers can cull stem cells from unwanted fertilized eggs at fertility clinics. This week, the Virginia-based Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine announced that it had harvested stem cells from embryos fertilized specifically for that purpose, raising the ethical stakes. Now comes Advanced Cell Technology's plan, in which the stem cells are generated not by fertilizing an egg, but by cloning. Although the company specializes in cloning animals, West said that the research would allow it to create stem cells that are an exact genetic match to human donors. In addition to the broader ethical questions raised by cloning, the research program has already had to confront difficult questions for the women who volunteer to donate their eggs. Egg donation, a technique also used in conventional fertility procedures, can cause medical complications and even leave a woman infertile. Ann Kiessling, an associate professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, is in charge of the effort to recruit women to donate their eggs for use by Advanced Cell Technology. She said donors were put through a rigorous screening process to ensure they were not under any pressure to participate, and that they understood both the medical risks and the fact that they did not stand to benefit from the research. She said the volunteers, currently about 10 women from around New England, are paid for their time and trouble and that the total fee would reach $4,000 per person for those who completed it. The egg donors were found by placing ads in a number of area newspapers, including the Boston Globe. The people who contribute skin cells for the research are not paid, West said. Keissling said she was first approached about two years ago by Advanced Cell Technology. She serves on its board of ethical advisers, headed by Ronald Green, a professor of religion at Dartmouth. Green said that the company would not let any of the cells develop past 13 days, and that at this early stage of development, the grouping of cells should not even be considered an embryo. That is a question, though, for which there are no clear scientific answers. Green said that the company had instituted elaborate security measures to ensure that none of the developing cells would be stolen and allowed to develop into a child. He didn't specify what those measures were. All of the scientists involved said they were somewhat apprehensive about the public reaction to their work, but that they were convinced they had managed to avoid ethical problems, and were working to further medicine. "My mother has Parkinson's," said Kiessling. "I know my goal."
|
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Co. |
Profile: 
rossing an explosive ethical boundary, Advanced Cell Technology in
Worcester has started an unprecedented program to clone and harvest human
cells, the company president said yesterday.