Where Stem Cells Stand

"Every major advance in science that I'm aware of these days is coming from interdisciplinary work," says Witte, a renowned scientist whose laboratory research laid the groundwork for development of the targeted leukemia therapy Gleevec. "Stem cell research is a unifying science that requires different kinds of people to work together."

Case in point: On Friday, Feb. 3, UCLA will be host to "Stem Cells: Promise and Peril in Regenerative Medicine," a two-day academic conference followed on Sunday, Feb. 5, with a symposium, free and open to the public, in Covel Commons. Campus units involved in the event include the Center for Society and Genetics; the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine; Anderson School of Management; Mattel Children's Hospital; the College of Letters and Science; the School of Dentistry; the David Geffen School of Medicine; the School of Public Affairs; and the School of Public Health. "We want to be proactive rather than reactive," says Edward R.B. McCabe, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and director of the Center for Society and Genetics.

Grad Student Takes Spotlight

UCLA's high-profile position in stem cell science has not gone unnoticed in Sacramento. Top state politicians chose Westwood to hold a news conference last August to announce bipartisan opposition to a U.S. Senate bill that would place new limits on human embryonic stem cell research. California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was there. Democratic luminaries included Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa '77. But it was a UCLA student who by all accounts stole the show.

Candace Coffee, a 26-year-old graduate student in the School of Public Health, spoke of her struggle with Devic's disease, a rare and potentially fatal autoimmune condition that left her temporarily paralyzed, permanently blind in one eye and dealing with constant pain and nausea from her regimen of 10 daily pills.

A self-described Christian from a conservative community, she did her own research before deciding to go public. "These are embryos that are already designated for destruction," Coffee says. "These are not fetuses; it's a matter of taking 5- to 8-day-old masses of cells that are going to be discarded and using them for something amazing - to take life that's already in existence and keep it there." Coffee believes Devic's could one day benefit from an emerging stem cell technology known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Stem cells are the source of all we become - unspecialized cells that give rise to lungs, liver, brain, hair, heart - and the source of considerable excitement among scientists. Armed with ever more powerful tools, researchers are exploiting the power of stem cells to reveal vital information about human development. Such study could uncover new avenues for treating numerous conditions, from HIV, cancer and stroke to spinal cord injury and musculoskeletal disease; it could lead to a renewable source of replacement cells and tissue to treat metabolic disorders such as diabetes, or degenerative conditions as rare as Devic's or as common as Parkinson's, MS and heart disease.

To be sure, no discussion of human embryonic stem cell research is complete without acknowledging that there are many, most prominently President Bush, who hold moral and ethical concerns about what they view as a potential loss of human life. Proponents of the research counter that saving and extending human life is precisely the reason for supporting the science. In vitro fertilization clinics typically prepare many cells that are not used for impregnation. The unused or surplus cells are kept frozen as human tissue in case they are needed. When the tissue is no longer needed for pregnancy, proponents argue, it should be available for potentially life-saving stem cell research. But those on the other side of the issue contend that it is morally unacceptable to destroy embryos, a consequence of harvesting stem cells, even to save the lives of others.

Published Jan 1, 2006 12:00 AM