"Senators Denounce Scientist's Stem Cell Claims: Confusion Over Harm to Embryos In Study at Issue"

Read the description of the event by Rick Weiss in The Washington Post of September 7, 2006.

Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), respectively Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, are described as having "lashed out" yesterday at Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Mass during a Subcommittee hearing. Their complaint was that "the scientist and his company have harmed the struggling field by overstating their results." The two senators are said to "strongly support human embryonic stem cell research."

BusinessWire.com reports:

Robert Lanza, M.D., Advanced Cell Technology's Vice President of Medical and Stem Cell Development, testified today before the Senate Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Dr. Lanza's testimony focused on support for wider availability of human embryonic stem cells for basic medical research. Dr. Lanza is the principle author of a paper published online (ahead of print) on August 23 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, which described a technique for developing human embryonic stem cells with a single-cell biopsy technique called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). This technique is not harmful to embryos.

The letter to Nature cited in the dispute is by Lanza and four other authors. It states in part:

The derivation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells currently requires the destruction of ex utero embryos. A previous study in mice indicates that it might be possible to generate embryonic stem (ES) cells using a single-cell biopsy similar to that used in preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which does not interfere with the embryo's developmental potential. By growing the single blastomere overnight, the resulting cells could be used for both genetic testing and stem cell derivation without affecting the clinical outcome of the procedure. Here we report a series of ten separate experiments demonstrating that hES cells can be derived from single blastomeres.

Apparently wide interest was stimulated in and by the media in the possibility of generating embryonic stem cell lines without destroying embryos. To do so would reduce some, but not all, of the religiously based objections many people (including President Bush) have to embryonic stem cell research. The reported research, however, resulted in the destruction of the donated embrios it used. Certainly the research done to date does not justify Business Wire's claim that "this technique is not harmful to embryos."

Lanza seems not to have made excessive claims about the work, and is quoted as stating:

"Our paper is 100 percent correct!"

Weiss, in the article cited above reports:

(A) plainly incorrect announcement (was) sent to science reporters by the journal Nature itself.

"By plucking single cells from human embryos, Robert Lanza and his colleagues have been able to generate new lines of cultured human embryonic stem (ES) cells while leaving the embryos intact," the release said.

That erroneous description -- written not by scientists at Nature but by the journal's lay staff -- was corrected after news stories were published.

Nature later apologized to reporters, blaming the mistake on "internal communication problems."

Comment: I believe that it would better to utilize the many embryos that are currently being destroyed (as no longer needed for implantation as part of reproductive medicine) to derive stem cell lines for research, and eventually (one hopes) for other clinical applicationss. The value of deriving stem cell lines from blastomeres without destroying the embryo is primarily in the eyes of a religious minority. However, were

* embryonic stem cell lines to be successfully derived from cells extracted from embryos,
* the embryos later successful implanted, and
* the resulting pregnancies to yield healthy babies,

then many who do not do so now would approve government funding of embryonic stem cell research. I would welcome their added support.

If Nature's staff made an error in the news release based upon a letter (which was correct in every way), then those staff members deserve blame. So too do the scientists in charge at Nature for not supervising the lay staff more effectively to prevent such mis-statements. So too do the reporters and editors who published the incorrect information from the news release without further verification. While there is plenty of blame to go around, none would seem to attach to Dr. Lanza and his associates for the misunderstanding.

I find it interesting that Senators should use an appropriations hearing to discuss this paper, and inappropriate that they should "lash out" at a distinguished scientist and entrepreneur for a failure that was not his. A little more decorum, please!

Again, I am reminded that the knowledge systems and processes in the media and the U.S. legislative bodies are much different than those of the scientific community and its journals. The scientific knowledge processes are better at getting at the truth of the issue. But, as this case illustrates, the communication among these knowledge systems is fraught with peril.