By Jeff Milgram
The Princeton Packet
Friday, July 27, 2001

Princeton University Immunologist Ihor Lemischka has found his work affected by the controversy over embryounic Human cell research. Staff photos by Mark Czajkowski

   One day, embryonic stem cells may help scientists find a cure for leukemia.
   One day. But most certainly not anytime soon, says Ihor Lemischka, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University who is using embryonic mice stem cells to find out how the human body produces blood. And this, he believes, could eventually lead to a cure or vaccine for leukemia and a host of other diseases.
   Dr. Lemischka is an immunologist and is interested in understanding how some stem cells decide to produce blood. For this work, he uses stem cells from mice embryos, not human embryos or adults.
   Even though he doesn't use human stem cells in his work, the debate over the use of embryonic human stem cells and the question of whether the federal government should fund such research has affected his work.
   In the fall, he will teach a freshman seminar that will touch in part on the ethical questions surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells.
   On the issue, Dr. Lemischka takes the scientific approach: Scientists cannot prove that adult stem cells work unless they are compared to embryonic stem cells.
   "If we fund only adult stem cell research, we're shooting down 50 percent of the important research. These experiments (embryonic stem cell research) should be strictly regulated," Dr. Lemischka said.
   "Embryonic stem cell research is going to go on ... in the private sector," Professor Lemischka said. It would be better, he said, if the central funding source for these studies did not have a commercial interest in the results.
   A national debate has risen over the use of stem cells taken from human embryos. On July 18, the National Institutes of Health in Washington issued a 200-page report that said scientists should proceed with studies on stem cells taken from both human embryos and adult tissue.
   While the report did not say embryonic stem cells are better for research, it did say that embryonic cells offer some advantages over adult stem cells.
   The report was released at a time when a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee was holding hearings over whether President George W. Bush should allow federal funds to be used for research using human embryonic stem cells.
   Some religious groups and conservative Republicans are urging the president to limit studies to stem cells taken from adults. They say research using human embryonic stem cells is immoral because the embryo, which they consider to be a person, must be destroyed to harvest the stem cells.
   Dr. Lemischka made it clear that he respects the arguments from people who oppose stem cell research on religious or moral grounds and he thinks the debate is a good thing.
   But he doesn't believe the issue should be settled on religious grounds.
   A Princeton alumnus, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the only physician in the U.S. Senate and an abortion opponent, came out in support of human embryonic stem cell research.
   "I'm fully aware and supportive of the advances being made each day using adult stem cells," Sen. Frist said. "It is clear, however, that research using the more versatile embryonic stem cells has greater potential than research limited to adult stem cells and can, under the proper conditions, be conducted ethically."
   Pope John Paul II this week urged President Bush to outlaw using human embryos for medical research, saying America has a moral responsibility to reject actions that "devalue and violate human life."
   The debate has already led one American stem cell researcher to move to England, where rules are more relaxed. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Roger Pederson is leaving the University of California at San Francisco for Cambridge University. Britain allows research on embryonic stem cells and Dr. Pederson's work will be financed by a government agency.
   Stems cells are rudimentary cells that replicate repeatedly, providing a continuous source of new cells that become specific organ cells.
   In 1998, University of Wisconsin researcher Dr. James Thomas became the first to isolate embryonic stem cells.
   Since Dr. Thomas's discovery, embryonic stem cells have generated great interest. These cells, which may grow into any cell or tissue in the body, are extracted from the inner mass of an embryo when the embryo is a cluster of 100 to 300 cells, small enough to fit on the point of a sewing needle.
   According to the N.I.H. report, adult and embryonic stem cells have the ability to locate and repair injured cells.
   Currently, embryonic stem cell research must be conducted entirely with private money because Congress has imposed a ban on federal financing for the studies.
   Current embryonic stem cell research uses surplus cells generated in private fertility clinics — embryos that would otherwise be destroyed.
   In April, former Princeton University President Harold Shapiro joined 111 other college and university leaders in urging the Bush administration to allow embryonic stem cell funding.
   Calling the discovery of human embryonic stem cells "one of the most promising biomedical developments in recent years," the group asserted that a ban on federal funding would stifle the development of potential cures and treatment for such disorders as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injury and heart disease.
   Dr. Shirley Tilghman, the Princeton University molecular biologist who succeeded Dr. Shapiro as president in June, was the chairwoman of a National Institute of Health committee that drew up guidelines on the use of human embryonic stem cells. She said the commitee's guidelines require the research be conducted in "an ethically acceptable way."
   Dr. Tilghman said human embryonic stem cells are showing promise, but the best way for them to be studied is to open the research to a large number of government-funded scientists.
   Professor Lemischka believes more research needs to be done, using both adult and embryonic stem cells.
   "Data is sparse," he said.
   "There are promising areas, but there are no guarantees that Parkinson's will be cured next year," he said.
   He also believes the issue has been clouded because people mistakenly link stem-cell research with cloning.
   "It's nothing at all like cloning," he said. "There is no support in the scientific community to clone human beings."

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