Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have restored mobility in paralyzed rodents by implanting fetal stem cells into their spinal cords.
At a conference on Tuesday at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, scientists showed a dramatic video of the mice which progressed from dragging their hind limbs limply behind them to gaining limited movement in those legs. The study, done this spring, was the first time researchers restored mobility in a mammal using stem cells derived from aborted fetuses.
The study was done without federal funding, a potential source of money for embryonic stem cell research that many researchers have lobbied for vigorously.
But if studies like this was can be done without federal funding, who needs it?
It turns out federal funding is not just about money. It's also about oversight, public opinion, quality science and gaining the respect of colleagues.
Although the Johns Hopkins researchers achieved dramatic results using private funding, scientists maintain that government funding is essential to sustain a thriving national research community that will advance the science and discover real cures.
"This isn't going to get Christopher Reeve to walk again," said Dr. John Gearhart, a professor at Johns Hopkins who participated in the mouse research, at a meeting earlier this year in Chicago.
Government grants come with the requirement that results of the work done, good or bad, are published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
"To me it is a credibility issue," said Dr. Serge Przedborski, a researcher at Columbia University Health Sciences, who performs research supported by Project ALS.
"The federal government, through the NIH (National Institutes of Health) provides an example of excellence in ethics and a peer review system that basically criticizes and reviews your work," he said.
Peer review can be nonexistent in the private sector. If it does exist, it's less rigorous than in academia, researchers say.
Federal funding comes with often-stringent federal oversight as well, which can also be lacking in the private sector.
"If you allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, you can be sure it's done in an ethical and protected environment," said Joanne Carney, a director at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The AAAS recently sent a letter to President Bush urging him to allow the government to pay for stem cell research.
On the other hand, government research is sometimes criticized for lacking originality and being too sluggish. Researchers might never tackle the most risky projects if it weren't for the generous pockets of venture capitalists and other private investors.
It's the balance between the staid influence of the government and the dynamics of the private sector that are important for research to thrive in any country, many scientists say.
Funding for the breakthrough mouse research at Johns Hopkins was provided by Project ALS, a nonprofit group in New York dedicated to finding a cure for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
The founders of Project ALS are Jennifer Estess, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1997, her two sisters and a close friend. They chose not to apply for federal grants to avoid the government's strict constraints, long wait for money, and tedious grant writing. The foundation has raised more than $7 million through private donations.
Researchers who have participated in research funded by Project ALS have said the foundation provided money so quickly and generously that they're working faster than ever before, and doubling their efficiency.
Gearhart expressed concern recently over the possible halt in federal funding for stem cell research.
The situation has imposed a sort of gag on researchers in the field, who are either tied to private companies like Advanced Cell Technology or Geron, or who are wary of the political fallout of the controversy surrounding the cells.
Stem cells are so controversial because they're taken from embryos, which are destroyed. Those who believe an embryo is a human being believe stem cell research is unethical and immoral.
Researchers believe stem cells are so powerful because they have the ability to become every type of cell in the body. If they can direct the cells to become, say, neurons or nerve cells, scientists hope they can treat diseases and injuries such as diabetes, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), Alzheimer's and spinal cord injury.
The use of federal funds for stem cell research was banned in the United States for four years until early last year, when the Clinton administration drafted new guidelines. President Bush will soon decide whether the research can continue to be funded by taxpayer money.
A recent international meeting of Gearhart's colleagues was "very boring because researchers were not sharing information," he said.
"I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole, like in Alice in Wonderland," Gearhart said.
Other organizations similar to Project ALS fund private research. The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation are just a few groups giving money directly to researchers.
Johns Hopkins recently received an anonymous $58 million grant for stem cell research, and venture capitalists are likely to extend their feelers should Bush decide not to fund the research federally.
But some researchers have already chosen to go abroad to do their research, and many believe that trend could expand. They believe countries like Great Britain, Japan and Australia will become the leaders in stem cell research.
"If we don't have federal support we will be left behind in a very big way," Gearhart said. "I don't think they'll have a need for us."
Alta Charo, a law and medical ethics professor at the University of Wisconsin and member of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, which oversees federal stem cell research, said a lack of federal funding could result in a brain drain in the United States.
"The more the private sector is the only source of funding, the less power the academics will have," Charo said.