Selling A Miracle --- Are Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Be Blamed?

CNN Presents aired the show ‘Selling a Miracle’ --- CNN investigates experimental embryonic stem cell clinics. Stem cell shows, like political talk shows, are not likely to be as enticing as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or ‘Harry Potter’. How many times we feel relieved for the freedom provided by technology miracles to only push a button and be able to skip anything we do not want to see or hear on TV? Unfortunately, I have been trained by taxpayers’ money for so many years to become one of the most resourceful and dedicated human embryonic stem cell (hESC) researchers of the Nation. Finally, I made myself to watch it and realized it’s the usual odd story again. Although it is quite interesting for CNN to expose stem cell frauds, someone is blaming selling stem cell frauds and lies on human embryonic stem cells again. There was a second glim between ‘cells isolated from the nose’ and ‘embryonic stem cells’, which are not isolated from the nose, that made it obvious that CNN had something cut off from the film.


In the 90^th, National Institutes of Health (NIH) had invested hundreds of millions of tax dollars on transplanting adult cells, such as neurons or skin cells, either isolated from tissues or made by genetic-engineering, which has never turned out to be anything but waste. It was learned that those adult cells would not survive the transplantation, let alone unavoidable severe immune-rejection and accelerated aging. Companys transplanting adult skin cells had gone bankrupted by the end of last century since those skin grafts were found deteriorating quickly and miserably on patients. Stem/progenitor cells had come up to be a better choice for transplantation and cell therapy. However, the lessons have been short learned. In the past few years, NIH, under the pressure of law-suits brought by the opponents of hESC research and their financial stakes, again has been investing hundreds of millions of tax dollars on making and transplanting adult cells, such as endogenous cells, tissue-derived cells, induced pluripotent somatic cells (iPS cells), trans-differentiated skin cells, and reprogrammed adult cells, which are again turning out to be anything but useful as what had been learned before. Shockingly, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which seems to be manipulated by the same group of individuals who manipulate the NIH, has also followed the suit of NIH to divert Prop71 public funds that are earmarked for hESC research and protected by a law into making and transplanting adult cells, including endogenous cells, tissue-derived cells, iPS cells, and trans-differentiated skin cells. It is known that those adult cells, NOT hESCs, have severe problems of immune-rejection, not transplantable, not engraftable, and aging. However, both NIH and CIRM reviewers often act like opponents of hESC research and ignore the data/evidence and even well-publicized Geron’s trial for hESCs to use those common problems of adult cells, such as not addressing immunogenicity and not surviving transplantation, against or block hESC proposals. Rudy Jaenisch ‘s reprogramming of adult cells holds hugh stakes in big drug development companys like Pfizer. Such significant financial stakes/conflicts could be very likely to dominate the reviewers’ interests to give biased comments over their scientific integrity to give objective scientific reviews, particularly the power of reviewer can be easily abused under the confidential policy to conceal the reviewer’s identity. At last year’s stem cell meeting on the mesa, someone asked NIH’s iPS cell center director Mahendra Rao what he believed was the most promising area for stem cell investment. Mahendra Rao, a neural stem cell person on dopaminergic neuron, chose diabetes, which has been one of the hardest areas for stem cell therapy development but has no conflict with his own research area, to answer. 


Human embryonic stem cells themselves are useless, because they are pluripotent, undecided, not functional. Human embryonic stem cells have to be turned into stem/progenitor/precursor cells of functional cells or functional cells, such as brain cells, heart cells, and bone cells to be useful for therapy. However, CIRM has misappropriated most of Prop71 public funds to waste on experimenting those severe problems for adult cells and on making useless abnormal iPS/trans-differentiated adult cells, while CIRM only needs to follow the law and scientific merits of Prop71 to fund hESC research as the simplest solution to those adult cell problems invented by CIRM board members for the sake of their own financial stakes. For example, CIRM has misused more Prop71 funds on experimenting their invented immunological issue on mice, which is rather a clinical issue than a preclinical translational problem, than the entire amount of CIRM funding gone into emerging growth regenerative medicine industry for resolving the major obstacles of hESC research and therapy. It is those universities’ and research institutes’ financial conflicts of interests or financial stakes to be blamed, not human embryonic stem cells.