Wednesday, February 11, 2015 // The Statement
6B

University advances stem cell technologies amid 

political contention

by Anastassios Adamopoulos, Daily Staff Reporter

“It is exciting for me to think that 
this tiny group of cells could be the 
seed to help people suffering with 

diseases in the future,” Patricia said.

Editor’s note: Upon request, some individuals interviewed for 
this article have been identified by first name only.

In the Medical Science Building at the University’s Medi-

cal School, I looked through a microscope at a 35-millimeter 
petri dish and saw microscopic organisms that could appar-
ently one day provide treatments for a host of debilitating 
genetic diseases.

These microscopic organisms are called human embry-

onic stem cell colonies.

The room is the University’s MStem Cell Laboratories, 

which develops human embryonic stem cell lines from 
disease-affected embryos. Last month The Michigan Daily 
reported on one such stem cell line developed from an 
embryo that had been donated by a University alumna.

But as the University looks to grow such efforts, it remains 

unclear how the current political landscape might alter the 
path of such research.

The difficulty in studying genetic diseases is observ-

ing how they begin and how they grow. Without access to 
the formation of the cells, scientists cannot know what the 
developmental process is. Embryonic stem cell lines can — to 
some extent — solve this problem by showing scientists how 
a mutation develops.

“(It is) important to understand how mutations give rise to 

the pathology,” said Gary Smith, director of the MStem Cell 
Laboratories. “Knowing how a mutation results in a neuron 
that functions abnormally provides opportunities to prevent 
or treat the disease.”

It takes around 210 days to produce a single embryonic 

stem cell line. This includes about twenty to thirty rounds 
of replication and characterization to ensure the new line 
develops as needed. Once the lab has produced a success-
ful line, they freeze it and store it. Stem cells can prolifer-
ate indefinitely if they are carefully grown, so the number of 
lines that can be produced is up to the laboratory’s discretion.

“It is quite a labor-intensive project,” Smith said. “We have 

to feed these cells every other day. And we have to split them 
every seven days. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the weekend, it 
doesn’t matter if it’s on Christmas.”

Patricia, a research specialist in the lab, works on all of the 

different steps in this line production process.

“The beginning of a new line is really fascinating because 

you can see day by day how few cells start to divide to pro-
duce the first stem cells colony,” she said.

Understanding how these diseases develop is the begin-

ning of the ultimate goal of this research: finding the drugs 
to treat them.

Scientists who study these human embryonic stem cell 

lines examine how they develop into neurons or other kinds 
of specialized cells they want, and see where the mutation 
occurs. They could then find and test drugs to stop the muta-
tion from happening.

However, there are further steps that need to be taken. 

Smith pointed out that it is important to have more than one 
stem cell line for each disease, ideally from different people. 
The comparisons that could be drawn among different lines 
would lead to more conclusive results.

“I think in the future this is going to be a huge way of being 

an intermediary between animal studies and clinical trials of 
new drugs,” Smith said.

Once the production is done, the paperwork starts. The 

lab submits its findings to the National Institutes of Health so 
that the new line can be put on the Human Embryonic Stem 
Cell Registry, where organizations around the world submit 
information about the embryonic stem cell lines they have 
produced. Acceptance onto the registry depends on meeting 
the guidelines that the NIH has set.

Smith noted that so far the lab has seen great success in 

meeting the regulations put forth by the NIH — every one of 
the lines they have submitted has been accepted.

Once the stem cell line is accepted, it is on the registry for 

those interested in buying it from the lab. After reaching an 
agreement, the lab will ship the line out to the purchaser. The 
purchaser must also submit a request for a research grant by 
the NIH to work on the stem cell line.

The University’s MStem Cell Laboratories have added 

25 out of 303 total human embryonic stem cell lines on the 
registry, with another three lines currently under review. It 
has also added the most disease-specific stem cell lines in the 
past two years compared with other institutions.

While such research is widely considered cutting edge 

within scientific circles, the use of human embryos has led 
to rampant ethical debates. From 2001 to 2009, research in 
this field was stifled by federal funding restrictions passed by 
former President George W. Bush. The ban effectively pro-
hibited new lines from being created and left the scientific 
community with only twenty-one usable lines for research 
during those years, as scientists were limited to private dona-
tions and state funding to continue their research.

In March 2009, President Barack Obama signed an execu-

tive order that once again permitted federal funding for 
research on stem cells. The current National Institutes of 
Health guidelines are formatted after this executive decision. 
As a result NIH grants for studying human embryonic stem 
cell lines increased substantially, reaching $146.1 million in 
2013.

The MStem Cell Laboratories opened in 2009 as part 

of the University Stem Cell research department, after the 
adoption of the Michigan Stem Cell Amendment in 2008 that 
allowed embryo donation and production of embryonic stem 
cells for the first time in the state. The lab has employed four 
to five people over the years since its founding.

Read the rest of this article online 
at MichiganDaily.com

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

The lab manager removes embryonic stem cells 
from nitrogen storage.

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

A research fellow gathers stem cells for differentiation assessment.

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

A research fellow assesses the neuronal differentiation of stem cells.

