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.