Voice of Regenerative Medicine : The Filtered News of CIRM and Stem Cell Research

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Filtered News of CIRM and Stem Cell Research

Can you believe that CIRM even has google connection to filter their news? Wow, CIRM and Alan Trounson collaborate with Chinese government on filtering internet news now? The google search engine for hot-button terms such as stem cell research or CIRM seems have been messed up for quite a while. We noticed that our posts have kept disappearing. Last week CIRM announced their awards to their inner circle again, which came up on top of google search for CIRM, but most of the headlines do not have anything to do CIRM’s internal awards. Wow, what a democracy about the freedom of speech!

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Public Interest

The successful derivation of human embryonic stem cell (human ES cell) lines from the in vitro fertilization (IVF) leftover embryos is considered as one of the major breakthroughs of the life sciences. The pluripotent human ES cells, derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) or epiblast of human blastocyst or human embryos, have both the unconstrained capacity for long-term stable undifferentiated growth in culture and the intrinsic potential for differentiation into all somatic cell types in the human body, holding tremendous potential for human tissue and function restoration. Therefore, human ES cells have been regarded as an ideal source to provide an unlimited supply of large-scale well-characterized human specialized cell types for cell-based therapies to resolve some worldwide major health problems, such as neurodegenerative diseases, paralysis, diabetes, and heart diseases. A small portion of the millions of excess embryos currently stored in the IVF clinics worldwide, which are otherwise destined for destruction, could potentially be an unlimited source to deliver in the future a whole range of therapeutic treatments for tissue and function restoration in patients with life-threatening diseases and injuries. However, human ES cell research has generated intense public interest as well as controversy due to concerns of products of human ES cell cultures that can only be obtained by the use, involving their destruction, of human embryos. The recent years’ court battles on Federal funding for human ES cell research in the United State (US) as well as the patentability of US and international patents directed to human ES cell technologies have also highlighted the decade long ethical, moral, social, and legal controversy surrounding the public interest of human ES cells involving destruction, commercial or industrial uses of human embryos. As neurodegenerative and heart diseases incur exorbitant costs on the healthcare system worldwide, there is a strong focus on providing newer and more efficient solutions for these therapeutic needs. Millions of people are pinning their hopes on human ES cell research. California voters have passed Proposition 71 to designate $3B public fund to support pluripotent human ES cell research and therapy development for the benefit of public health. In spite of ethical debates surrounding the ownership and funding issues of human ES cells, in the case of many incurable or hitherto untreatable life-threatening or devastating diseases, supporting human ES cell research is crucial to driving the advance of medicine to provide optimal regeneration and reconstruction treatment options to improve the function, wellness, and overall quality of life. To answer the intense public interest surrounding human ES cell research and enormous public healthcare benefits thereof, Voice of Regenerative Medicine provides a ground of public debate or voice or blog for the controversies surrounding public interest of human ES cells centering on scientific, economic, ethical, moral, social, financial conflict of interest, and legal issues, to increase public awareness and understanding of the scientific advancement of human ES cell research, and of the importance, urgency, and tangible benefits of human ES cell-based regenerative medicine to improving the function, wellness, and overall quality of life for patients suffering from incurable or hitherto untreatable life-threatening or devastating diseases; to increase public support for human ES cell research; to improve policy making and funding situation for human ES cell research, and to identify and disclose publicly those scientific, economic, ethical, moral, social, financial conflict of interest, and legal issues that have impeded the progress of human ES cell research and stem cell therapy development, introduction of medical innovations and new business opportunities based on human ES cell research, and bringing new therapeutics into the market.

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