Harvard researcher to give away stem cells

A Harvard scientist announced yesterday that he has created 17 healthy and scientifically useful lines of human embryonic stem cells and is prepared to give them free to hundreds of scientists.

The new cells, described in a special report published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, more than double the number of useful embryonic stem-cell lines available to scientists. But Bush administration rules now in place will prohibit scientists from using federal money to do any research with them, or even use them in laboratories that receive federal funding.

Their existence adds to the growing split between scientists, who want access to a wide variety of cell lines, and the administration, which argues that the handful of cell lines eligible for federal research money are adequate for researchers' needs.

In an editorial accompanying the report, the journal called for the administration to drop its restrictions on embryonic stem cells, which can mature into any tissue in the body and are widely seen as uniquely powerful tools for future cures.

"It would be as if somebody said, `computers are bad, so we are not going to use them,' " said Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, editor in chief of the journal, in an interview. "To hold our researchers back from this will really have a negative impact on biomedical research for a long time to come."

In his 2001 speech announcing the government's stem-cell policy, President Bush said he accepted that human embryonic stem cells held medical promise, but ended government funding of research on new stem-cell lines, because creating them would require scientists to destroy a week-old human embryo.

The fertilized eggs used for the Harvard stem cells, provided by donors through an arrangement with the fertility clinic Boston IVF, were left over from treatments and would have been destroyed anyway, said Harvard biologist Douglas Melton, who created them. At the time they are destroyed, they are balls of about 100 cells.

Dr. James F. Battey, chairman of the National Institutes of Health committee that oversees the funding for stem cell research, said the new cells represented "a very interesting resource for the research community," but confirmed that scientists would not be eligible to use federal funding to study them.

The announcement, and the journal's tough stand, comes at a time of quickly intensifying disillusionment in the biomedical research community with the administration. On Tuesday, US Representatives Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, and Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, released a document they obtained from the NIH showing that at most, 23 human embryonic-stem cell lines will ever be available for federally funded research -- far fewer than the "more than 60" promised by the president when he announced the restrictions.

And many biologists are fuming after the White House fired a highly regarded biologist from a presidential advisory council on bioethics late Friday. This week the American Society for Cell Biology decried the firing in a statement that referred to the move as a "Friday afternoon massacre."

"Biologists are feeling less and less trustful," said Elizabeth Marincola, executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology, in an interview. "Their skepticism has turned to cynicism in light of recent events."

Scientists are interested in embryonic stem cells because of their ability to transform into other types of cells. These cells give them a way to watch how cells develop in the body and to understand how that process can go awry in the case of diseases like cancer, diabetes, or Parkinson's.

There are 15 lines of embryonic stem cells that researchers can use in federally funded experiments, but using those cell lines has been difficult for those who have tried, said Dr. Leonard Zon, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. In part because the US government has not funded the research, he said, there are few alternatives to these lines, even for privately funded researchers.

Researchers would welcome new cell lines, said Zon and other scientists, because each cell line has its own characteristics, the way each person is unique. With more options, scientists are more likely to find a cell line suitable for their experiments.

The new cell lines -- which Melton said he was ready to start shipping yesterday -- will be provided free to scientists. The owners of some of the other lines charge thousands of dollars. The legal paperwork to use them will be minimal, Melton said.

Scientists also said the cells created by Melton and his team would probably be easier to use in the lab than the government-approved lines. The cells grow well, whereas many scientists consider the government lines quite finicky.

"These are a wonderful new set of lines that are easy to use," said Zon, who is a researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston and is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Melton had already announced that he had created the cell lines, but yesterday's paper, which will be published in the March 25 print edition of the journal, marked the first published scientific description of them.

One of the problems in assessing the usefulness of the government-approved cell lines, or in comparing them with the new ones, is that nobody has done a systematic analysis of the government-approved ones. Since the end of last summer, NIH scientist Ron McKay has been directing a new office, the Stem Cell Characterization Unit, which plans to analyze all 15 lines. But, he said, they are growing cells from only six of the lines right now and are far from being able to fully describe their characteristics.

The Harvard project could not have been done using federal money. The work was funded in a collaboration by Harvard University, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which pays Melton's salary and provided additional money to help build a separate laboratory for the research, so that it was clear no federal funds were used.

Boston IVF also helped set up the laboratory and provided the fertilized egg cells. All of the donors signed a release stating that they wanted the eggs to be used in the research, according to a Boston IVF spokesperson.

The cell lines will be used as a part of a new Harvard initiative, codirected by Melton, to study stem cells and their potential medical uses.

Melton said he has been driven to do the work by his son and daughter, both of whom have diabetes. After his son, Sam, was diagnosed at just 6 months of age, Melton focused his research on finding a cure. That has lead him directly into the world of human embryonic-stem cell research -- and the political maelstrom that surrounds it.

"I have only done what any father would do," Melton said.

Gareth Cook can be reached at cook@globe.com.